The ^ 

Democratic Ideal 

in 

Education. 





BY 




R. E. HUGHES. 


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CHARLES & DIBLE, 



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THE 

DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION, 



The New Movement 
in Edacation , 

•wkih special reference to 

Elementary Education. 

By Thisclton Mark, B,A., B,Sc. 



PRICE NET, 1s. 

m # 

CHARLES & DIBLE, 
London, Glasgow, and Dublin* 



The -^ 

Democratic Ideal 

hi 

Education. 



BY 



R. E. HUGHES. 

Author of ''Schools at Home and Abroad," ''The Making of Citizens 
A Study in Comparative Education," etc. 



CHARLES & DIBLE, 

LONDON : 10, Paternoster Square, E.C, 

Also at Glasgow and Dublin. 



ft \ 

■A 






Piiuted at Tn* C'HAKi.Keorjt PaEas. 62, Cai-ter Lane L.iudon, E.C, 



CONTENTS, 



Chapter I. — National Types and Educational Ideals* 
,, IL — The Democratic Ideal in Education* 
tt III. — The Ideal in Practice* 
tt IV.— Difficuhies. 
t, V. — Conclusions. 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/democraticidealiOOhugh 



INT RODUCT ION. 

In our land there is to-day considerable discussion upon 
educational matters. Appeals are made sometimes to our 
reason, and sometimes to our prejudices, and considerable 
bitterness of feeling is aroused and displayed, and generally 
much pother is created upon matters that are only 
incidentally educational. Let us trust that out of this evil 
good may come. Let us hope that what is at present an 
interest produced artificially, and with much labour, may 
become perennial and natural. Let us seize this golden 
opportunity to make our people permanently interested in 
this fateful problem of national education, so that the 
popular apathy, which in the past has been our curse, may 
develop into a popular vigilance, without which no truly 
national system is possible. But popular vigilance needs 
popular intelligence. Until our people can be made to see 
the true inwardness of their own instinctive faith, until 
they can be made to realise what national training means, 
and to understand why we need a better system of 
education — not, indeed, to beat the German, but to beat 
the devil — only when these matters have become part of 
our common faith may we look for the regeneration of 
this land. 

The superficial is always evident, but the spirit is 
rarely recognised. The splendid instructional efficiency of 
certain foreign systems of education easily seduces the 
casual observer, and sometimes even attracts the admiration 



INTRODUCTION. 

of the uncritical philosopher. It is because I have felt that 
this unreasoning admiration of some of our people (some 
indeed of the best friends of education) for foreign systems 
of schools is a most serious danger to our own schools that 
I have written this essay. I hope that in it I have shown 
that, although we may learn much, we dare copy but little 
from the foreign schools. We must work out our own 
salvation. We must dare to be ourselves. We must 
realise that the school is deliberately designed to manu- 
facture citizens of a certain peculiar, unique, and character- 
istic type. Our schools and teachers must be content 
to turn out English children, and leave the turning 
out of German children for the German school. I have 
endeavoured to bring out the contrast between the social 
ideals of different peoples in this essay, and to show how 
in these matters of national education we must be content 
to look westward, not eastward, for light. 

I have to thank my friend Mr. P. B. Balland for kindly 
reading the proofs for me. 

R. E. HUGHES. 

Chvistmas, 1903. 



CHAPTER I. 



National Types and Educational Ideals. 

"... during the civilisation period, the body being systematically 
wrapped in clothes, the //g^7^ alone represents man — the little mannikin,' 
intellectual, self-conscious man, in contradistinction to the cosmical 
man represented by the entn-ety of the bodily organs," — E. Carpenter. 

As my purpose here is to endeavour to describe a movement 
in education which has become international in character, 
and to show how this democratic ideal of peoples is being 
materialised in the various national systems of education, it 
will be necessary for us to give some attention to the 
present aspect of the social organisms in those countries ; 
for the educational system of any country is based upon, 
and reflects clearly, the many political and social factors 
that go to the making of the national life. 

A system of education is so far national and peculiar only 
so far as it vividly and accurately reflects the many ripples 
that constitute the stream of a people's life. You will best 
realise the characteristics, and, indeed, the ideals, of a people 
only by carefully investigating the working of its schools. 
Go among the children in its schools if you would find the 
pole star of a nation's hopes. And so just as there is 
complexity in the social organism so is there complexity in 
the system of schools ; and just as it is difficult to speak of 
a unity in the national life, so is it difficult, if not 
impossible, to speak of a unity in the national system 
of education. The social life of a modern people is 
infinitely complex ; so, too, is their system of education. 
The school reflects this diversity in unity of a 
people. And just as national characteristics are slowly 

B 



lO THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

disappearing, so, too, are educational differences. Yet, 
allowing this much, let us not lose sight of the enormous 
significance and power to-day of national characteristics and 
of national ideals. Beneath the apparent diversity and 
complexity of national life there is a great permanent fund 
of thought, action, and ideals that remains untouched by 
time and uninfluenced by environment. It is this great 
backwater of national characteristics that adds diversity to 
the picture of social progress to-day. We see the same force 
acting upon different peoples with very different results ; 
and the only term that is common to the social unrest of 
to-day is its universality. 

There can be small hesitation in ascribing to the 
mechanical inventions of the last century and the consequent 
profound changes in man's environment, the social unrest 
of to-day. Men find themselves in a world which neither 
training nor tradition has prepared them for. The world 
has suddenly become filled with phenomena that experience 
has not expected. It is felt that our old methods, our old 
faiths, help us not at all in meeting successfully the problems 
of to-day. The past has been lost and the future not found. 
The terrible growth of great cities, with their appalling 
poverty, the exacting cruelty of modern commercialism, 
the tyranny of capital, which laughs at loyalty and 
patriotism while exploiting them for its own ends, the 
seizing of public wealth for private ends, the puerility 
of politics, the bankruptcy of religion, and the annual 
holocaust of childhood on the altar of industrialism, — all these 
things are troubling the minds of philosophers and filling 
the hearts of the thoughtful with anguish. These problems 
are international : they are no nation's monopoly. In France 
and Germany they are as striking as in England and 
America. To find a paradise for children one must search 
mid the snows of Greenland or the forests of equatorial 
Africa. The ample folds of " Old Glory " cannot hide the 
child from the sweater, ''^' and to-day there are probably more 

* Here are two recent cuttings : — " The Italian Consul at Philadelphia, 
Count Brandolini, aroused by the exposures of the New York Journal, 
recently made a thorough investigation of the labour conditions in 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. II 

child slaves under our Union Jack than under any other 
flag in the world, f 

New Jersey, especially as they related to the children of Italians. The 
Count said : — 

" ' I found men, women, and children living in absolute slavery. 
In the glass works of the George Jones Company I found thirty or 
forty children not more than eight or ten years old working under the 
most shocking conditions. When I sought out their parents, I was met 
with the argument that unless the children worked as soon as they 
could earn anything they could not make a living. They said they 
must all work or else starve. The owners of the glass works con- 
tended that the children they employed were all above the legal age, 
but I know better. Some of them looked to be little more than mere 
babies.' " 

" Hundreds of small boys work for Mr. Borden, and many of them 
toil ten hours a day without a thread of clothing on their bodies. A 
Journal man has investigated the matter and found that naked people 
work in the American works, but they are not exactly babies. They 
are children, sometimes not more than fourteen years old. They work 
in big tanks called ' lime keer,' in the bleach house, packing the cloth 
into the vats. This lime keer holds 750 pieces of cloth, and it requires 
one hour and twenty minutes to till it. During that time the lad must 
work inside, while his body is being soaked with whatever there is of 
chemicals which enter into the process of bleaching, of which lime is a 
prominent factor. The naked bodies of the children who do this 
work day after day are never dry, and the same chemicals which 
effect the bleaching process of the gray cloth naturally bleach the skin 
of the operator, and after coming out of the vats the boys show the 
effects in the whiteness of their skins, which rivals the cotton cloth." 

t " Nor is this state of things confined to the Metropolis. In 
Massachusetts the statistician of the labour bureau declares that among 
wage labourers the earnings (exclusive of the earnings of minors) are 
less than the cost of living ; that in the majority of cases working men 
do not support their families on their individual earnings alone, and 
that fathers are forced to depend upon their children for from one- 
quarter to one-third of the family earnings, children under fifteen 
supplying from one-eighth to one -sixth of the total earnings. Miss 
Emma E. Brown has shown how parents are forced to evade the law 
prohibiting the employment of young children, and in Pennsylvania, 
where a similar law has been passed, I read how, forced by the same 
necessity, the operatives of a mill have resolved to boycott a shopkeeper 
whose relative had informed that children under thirteen were 
employed. While in Canada, last winter, it was shown that children 
under thirteen were kept at work in the mills from six in the evening 
to six in the morning, a man on duty with a strap to keep them awake." 
— Social Problems^ p. 91, H. George. 

B 2 

L.ofC. 



12 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

The truth is, indeed, that the mechanical inventions of the 
last century gave capital a lever that the State should have 
controlled. 

So momentous is the responsibility of controlling this 
lever that for common safety it should be borne by all. It 
is a vague, instinctive feeling, that the lever is governed by 
the wrong hands, that is at the bottom of much of the social 
dissatisfaction of to-day. 

Other suggestions have been thrown out, and innumerable 
have been the remedies suggested for the disease. Educa- 
tion, it was said, would prove the panacea of social evils. 
Build schools and you will close prisons, we were told. 
Time has, however, proved how delusive that dream was. 
Juvenile offenders, instead of diminishing as a result of 
building schools, have of late years enormously increased in 
every educated community. There has been, indeed, a 
softening of public opinion, and a consequent decrease in 
the number of prisoners, but the annual number of actual 
delinquents has, as I have said, not only at home, but in 
France, Germany, and most of all in America, gone on 
increasing to an appalling extent. 

Education can never save a State whose foundation is 
based upon a false system of social economics. In Germany 
the best educated people in the world may be observed suffer- 
ing from the sam.e social ills as the people of America and 
England. Education alone can never regenerate a race. The 
happiness of a State is dependent upon the social well-being 
of its individual citizens, and to a man destined to perpetual 
social slavery education becomes a curse, not a blessing. 

To educate a slave is the pastime of a tyrant. While the 
social organisation of society is such that the majority of 
thinking beings have nothing to think of but how to live, it 
is positive cruelty to place in their hands intellectual 
weapons, with which they may carve beautiful statuary 
it is true, but it crumbles to dust even in the very making. 
Let us free men from the thraldom of Nature, and of 
their fellows, before we urge them towards true freedom 
and real intellectual development. Poverty and tyranny 
will hide the stars from even the brightest of eyes and 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 1 3 

the most beautiful of souls. " Poverty is the Slough 
of Despond which Bunyan sa^v in his dream, and into 
which good books may be tossed for ever without result. 
To make people industrious, prudent, skilful, and intelligent 
they must be relieved from want. If you would have the 
slave show the virtues of the freeman, you must first 
make him free." (" Progress and Poverty," p. 219.) 

The more potent causes of this universal social unrest 
are difficult to define correctly; nevertheless, that it is 
intimately connected with the problem of the ownership 
and distribution of the land is evident. In America, 
England, and Germany, and generally speaking, too, in 
the urban rather than in the rural area, are its effects 
most pronounced. In France, Switzerland, and Holland, 
for example, the minute sub-division of the land has 
undoubtedly minimised the evil, an evil which in its extreme 
form is seen in the enormous aggregations of capital known 
as Trusts, Combines, and Syndicates — social phenomena — 
which are undoubtedly leading even easy-going citizens to 
see the reasonableness and the practical effectiveness of 
State Socialism. 

But it is not my purpose here to enquire into the many 
immediate causes of this social unrest, an unrest which, 
cosmopolitan as it is, shows how deep-lying and wide- 
spreading are its causes. More pertinent here is the 
investigation as to the relative efficiency, from a national 
point of view, of the various systems of education as reflect- 
ing the social organism itself. 

A criterion of immense value here is the relative facility 
which a system offers for the growth of individuality, or, 
in other words, the adaptability and elasticity of the 
system itself. By this I mean the facilities that the State 
offers for the development and nourishment of individuality 
in its citizens. 

It is deeply important to recognize the relative value of 
bureaucratic organisation and of individualism to the State. 
Both have immense advantages and serious limitations ; but 
in England to-day there is undoubtedly a tendency to 
emphasise the value of national organisation and to estimate 



14 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

the efficiency of a State by the collective rather than by the 
individual capacity of its citizens. Germany is held up to 
us for admiration as a State where every individual is fitted 
for his task in life by the State. This is, indeed, true, and 
one's first thought is undoubtedly admiration for this 
beautiful machine, which apparently works so smoothly, and 
in which one part is so like another as to fit in the general 
scheme of things without any friction. For certain 
purposes, and within certain limits, the machine does 
excellent work. But it is travesty to speak of freedom under 
such circumstances. Every child in Germany, from the age 
of six, is seized by the State and deliberately trained to fill a 
certain place in the national machine. Every school in 
Germany is deliberately designed for turning out certain 
specific parts for this machine. Of course, occasionally, 
even in Germany, Nature refuses to conform, and we hear 
of boys and men who have been robust enough to break the 
shell that would bind them to their little part in the national 
life. " Under any condition of things," remarks Henry 
George in his Social Problems, " short of a rigid system of 
hereditary caste, there will, of course, always be men who, 
by force of great abilities and happy accidents, win their 
way from poverty to wealth, and from low to high position." 
But such are the exceptions, and even to-day it is easier for 
a man of intellect to achieve high position in China than in 
Europe. 

Although, indeed, much is gained by this social co- 
operation, much, too, is lost. Under present conditions, 
with bureaucracy triumphant, Germany is bound in time to 
become a howling wilderness of intellectual mediocrity. 
Infinitely more valuable intellectually, and, in the end, 
commercially, too, is the supply of individuality which this 
system crushes. The national organisation which checks the 
flow of individual energy, or even endeavours to organise, 
control, and turn it into certain definite and clear channels, 
is bound to result in a considerable waste of national capital. 

Not a few writers have seen in the national habit of 
Englishmen of working hard from their youth up, and so 
giving vent to a superfluity of animal spirits and energy, 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. I5 

much of the secret of England's success. " In action," 
remarks Bagehot, "it is equally this quality in which the 
English — at least, so I claim it for them — excel all other 
nations. There is an infinite deal to be laid against us, and 
as we are .unpopular with most others, and as we are always 
grumbling at ourselves, there is no want of people to see it. 
But, after all, in a certain sense, England is a success in the 
world ; her career has had many faults, but still it has been 
a fine and winning career upon the whole. And this on 
account of the exact possession of this particular quality. 
What is the making of a successful merchant ? That he 
has plenty of energy and does not go too far. And if you 
ask for a description of a great practical Englishman, you 
will be sure to have this, or something like it : ' Oh, 
he has plenty of go in him, but he knows when to pull 
up.! ' He may have all other defects in him, he may 
be coarse, he may be illiterate, he may be stupid to talk 
to ; still, this great union of spur and bridle, of energy 
and moderation, will remain to him." {Physics and Politics, 
p. 202.) 

National efficiency is too expensive when bought at the 
price of individual liberty. Bureaucracy is efficient but 
expensive ; it kills all variety, all spontaneity, all resource. 
It makes of man a human machine, and sets artificial limits 
to his development and action. Certain great commercial 
advantages undoubtedly result from this national organisa- 
tion ; but there are some things that commerce can offer no 
compensation for, and this truth can receive no more 
striking confirmation than the contrast between the Germany 
of 1870 and that of 1900. 

In Germany, and, to a lesser extent, perhaps, in France, 
the ideal of citizenship is this social one ; and we find the 
educational systems deliberately contrived to fit every child 
for his place in the State machine. In other lands, on the 
contrary, the rights of the individual to full development as 
a moral and intellectual being are placed as the first 
principle of school training, for in these lands the social 
ideal is not a communal but a personal one. Consequently, 
in these latter States, the aim and purpose of education is 



l6 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

very much wider and has much less direct effect on the 
commercial organisation of the State than in the former 
States. To an American or to an Englishman education 
means much more than merely preparing the youth to take 
his place in the national industrial machine. It means, 
indeed, all those social factors that go to build up a liberal 
citizen and to make of the youth a ruler, not a producer. 
Such a community places character first ; but this subordina- 
tion of intellect to character should result in a recognition 
that the complete character is built upon the trained 
intellect. English people have instinctively recognised the 
better part of this truth, but not all of it, and in their 
admiration of character have rather lost sight of the 
indispensableness of intellect. However, national education 
in the Anglo-Saxon communities is a much more complex 
matter than it is in Continental communities, where a 
specific and definite purpose is ever present before the 
school. Hence in any comparison of national systems of 
education it is essential that these social ideals of peoples 
be recognised. 

There are among the leading nations of to-day, as we 
have suggested, two ideals of citizenship, which these 
schools, as institutions deliberately designed for the 
propagation of national ideals, are endeavouring to 
materialise — one in which each individual is being trained 
to take his destined place in the na^tional machine, and in 
which, consequently, the rights of the individual are 
subordinate to those of the community ; and the other, in 
which the rights of the individual are recognised as supreme, 
and in which every facility is offered by the community for 
the full development of those gifts with which he has 
been blessed. 

But, further, in any real comparison must be recognised 
the special aptitudes of different peoples. There is as great 
diversity among peoples as among individuals, and while 
some nations are naturally disposed to action, others are 
equally disposed to thought ; some peoples are distinguished 
by a logical consistency in their actions, others are equally 
characterised by a kind of instinctive inconsistency ; some 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 1 7 

nations flourish on compromise, others sacrifice themselves 
on the altar of symmetry and order. 

The people of one race think first and act afterwards, 
those of another act first and think afterwards. 

Hence we must recognise that in so far as the school is 
an intellectual force, it lends itself to the varying purposes 
and aptitudes of different peoples to a very different degree. 
Where a people have placed as their national ideal intellectual 
efficiency there will the scope and the power of the work of 
the school in the national life be greatest. The national 
ideal being an intellectual one, the work of the school, 
consisting as it essentially does of the propagation of 
national ideals, will be much simplified, and the effect of the 
instructional side of the school work will be great and 
marked on the national life itself. It is much easier work 
for the school to have as its one aim an intellectual rather 
than a moral ideal. Not that any people, or, indeed, any 
school, does or can altogether separate these two aims, but 
rather there is a subordination of the one to the other, 
according as the one or the other ideal looms the larger in 
the national horizon. When the moral ideal is supreme the 
work of the school becomes more complex, and, on the other 
hand, its influence as a political engine for the manufacture 
of citizens diminishes. So diverse is the nature of this 
moral ideal that the forces employed in its materialisation 
are of the most subtle and varied character. The school 
becomes then but one — an important one, it is true — among 
the numerous influences that go to the building up of this 
moral ideal. The work of the school, though important, is 
not indispensable, and its effects lack the directness and 
solidarity that characterise the work of a school whose first 
aim is intellect. Hence there is a certain vagueness, a want 
of directness, a lack of intellectual grip, an amateurishness, 
about the work of the school that give rise to considerable 
criticism and to some distrust, especially among the more 
intellectual elements of the community. 

But further than all this, is there not amongst our people 
to-day as dangerous a tendency to deify intellect and to 
exaggerate the value of knowledge to a people ? This fact, 



l8 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

that knowledge has an extrinsic and utilitarian value, is a 
most dangerous weapon to use for argument, for its logical 
outcome is the destruction of all liberal education. So far, 
indeed, has this policy proceeded in some countries, that in 
their schools no really liberal training is given. The education 
provided is an ad hoc training, and is deliberately intended to 
fit the child for the immediate purposes of commercial, 
industrial or professional life. But education is in truth a 
much deeper matter than that. " Intellectual power and 
knowledge then, as guiding principles, are usurpers, and do 
not lead to perfection. . . . True education is nothing 
less than bringing everything that men have learnt from 
God, or from experience, to bear first upon the moral and 
spiritual being by means of a well -governed society and 
healthy discipline, so that it should love and hate aright, 
and through this, secondly, making the body and intellect 
perfect, as instruments necessary for carrying on the work 
of earthly progress, training the character, the intellect, the 
body, each through the means adapted to each." — (Thring : 
Education and School^ p. 22.) 

In the democratic State, where each child must be 
trained, firstly, to be a citizen and only subsequently a 
craftsman, and where the obligation of the community to 
provide all means for self-development is recognised, such a 
subordination of the individual to the communal rights 
as I have described above would be utterly repugnant. 

In such a community as England the first purpose of 
school training is the making of citizens, the rearing of men 
and women prepared for the duties of government. Hence 
in such a country's schools the science of politics, the duties 
of citizenship, should occupy a prominent position in the 
curricula." 



* " To liveilh such a city was in itself no mean training for a man, 
though he iftiigfot not be conscious of it. The great object of Pericles' 
polrc5*> had been to make Athens the acknowledged intellectual capital 
and centre of Greece, * the Prytaneum of all Greek wisdom.' Socrates 
himself speaks with pride in the Apology of her renown for * wisdom 
and power of mind.' And Athens gave her citizens another kind of 
training also through her political institutions. From having been the 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. I9 

For each child must needs be educated to take his part 
in the system of governm.ent, and as the value of any 
discussion or action depends not only upon the number, but 
also upon the variety and diversity of the forces at work, so 
it becomes clear that the searching for and fostering of 
individuality is of the highest importance and value to such 
a democratic community. 

" Again, upon plausible grounds — ," remarks Bagehot, 
" looking, for example, to the position of Locke and Newton 
in the sciences of the last century, and to that of Darwin in 
our own — it may be argued that there is some quality in 
English thought which makes them strike out as many, 
if not more, first-rate and original suggestions than nations 
of greater scientific culture and more diffused scientific 
interest. In both cases I believe the causes of the English 
originality to be that government by discussion quickens 

liead of the confederacy of Delos, she had grown to be an Imperial, or, 
as her enemies called her, a tyrant city. She was the mistress of a 
great empire, ruled and administered by law. The Sovereign Power 
in the State was the Assembly, of which every citizen, not under 
disability, was a member, and at which attendance was by law com- 
pulsory. There was no representative government, no intervening 
responsibility of ministers. The Sovereign people in their Assembly 
directly administered the Athenian empire. Each individual citizen 
was tlius brought every day into immediate contact with matters of 
Imperial importance. His political powers and responsibilities were 
very great. He was accustomed to hear questions of domestic 
administration, of legislation, of peace and war, of alliances, of foreign 
and colonial policy, keenly and ably argued on either side. He was 
accustomed to hear arguments on one side of a question attacked and 
dissected and answered by opponents with the greatest acuteness and 
pertinacity. He himself had to examine, weigh, and decide between 
rival arguments. The Athenian judicial system gave the same kind of 
training in another direction by its juries, on which every citizen was 
liable to be selected by lot to serve. The result was to create at Athens 
an extremely high level of general intelligence, such as cannot be 
looked for in a modern State." (F. J. Church, The Trial and Death 
of Socrates — Introduction.) Again": "Mr. Galton, however, has 
expressed the opinion, and most of those who have written on the 
social condition of Athens seem to agree with him, that the population 
of Athens, taken as a whole, was as superior to us as we are to 
Australian savages." — Mr. Symonds, in his Sketches in Italy and 
Greece ; quoted by Lord Avebury in his Pleasures of Life, p. 186, 



20 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

and enlivens thought all through society; that it makes 
people think no harm may come of thinking ; that in 
England this force has long been operating, and so it has 
developed more of all kinds of people ready to use their 
mental energy in their own way, and not ready to use it in 
any other way, than a despotic government. And so rare is 
great originality among mankind, and so great are its fruits, 
that this one benefit of free government probably outweighs 
what are, in many cases, its accessory evils. Of itself it 
justifies, or goes far to justify, our saying with Montesquieu, 
' Whatever be the cost of this glorious liberty, we must be 
content to pay it to Heaven.' " {Physics and Politics.) 

On the other hand, in the well-organised or bureaucratic 
State every child passes through the same mill and is turned 
out so like his mates as to be indistinguishable from them. 
He thinks in the same channels, believes in the same faiths, 
and has the same stolid indifference to all higher aspirations 
and ambitions : school has effectually crushed his indi- 
viduality, and so minutely stratified and differentiated is the 
world in which he lives that even had he the will he has not 
the power to alter his environment and impinge his 
personality on his surroundings. 

But in the democratic State the liberty of each personality 
is recognised. The sacredness of the individual is admitted. 
Nothing matters before this — the right of each child to 
full development ; to this everything must be sacrificed. 
He who hinders the growth of childhood into full 
complete manhood is guilty of high treason to the State. 
He who, by word or deed, attempts to curb the growth of 
children, either intellectually, morally or physically, by 
limitations of age or opportunity, is a deadly enemy to the 
commonwealth. This right of childhood to complete 
development is the foundation stone upon which is built the 
temple of true democracy. Everything must be sacrificed to 
that. Our system must be elastic and comprehensive ; it 
must allow childhood to grow into citizenhood as free and as 
unfettered as the sunlight that kisses the curls of children. 
We must give up all for that liberty of spontaneous develop- 
ment, National efficiency bought at the price of liberty is 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 21 

too dear. High intellectuality is worth much, but serene 
national moraHty is worth infinitely more. For, after all, 
let us beware of this idol of intellectuality. Education is 
not a mere accumulation, not a mere physical process, but a 
spiritual growth. 

Intellect appeals to intellect as deep calls to deep. Let 
us, however, beware of these strange leaders who would 
entice us out into the barren wastes of intellectuality, 
where without our moral stamina and resource we should 
quickly die. 

Nay, but let us hold fast to our old faiths, and be guided 
by our own instincts and aptitudes, which have in the past 
made us what we are, and which will, an we cling to them, 
never play us false in the future. Let us beware of placing 
this Teutonic god of intellectuality in our schools, but rather 
let us be true unto ourselves, unto our own ideals ; and 
whatever the future has in store we shall meet it as honest 
men, panoplied in the armour of our own integrity, and loyal 
to the truth that in us as a people lies. 



^4^¥ 



22 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 



CHAPTER II, 



The Democratic Ideal in Education. 

Standing on the Rigi and looking eastward towards the 
rising sun, one's eyes pass over a panorama of exquisite 
beauty. At our feet, as it were, lies the little town of 
Schwyz, at the head of the Lowerzzee, nesthng 'neath the 
frowning crags of the two My then, whilst stretching aAvay 
towards the right and kissing the horizon like a silver arc, 
lie in one huge semicircle those giants of Central Europe — 
the Bernese Alps. 

Here and there tiny ribbons of silver twist in and out the 
green background of the picture, showing where the 
boisterous Reuss or rushing Aar pursue their tumultuous 
courses. Far in front of us, almost lost in the haze of the 
horizon, peep the Tyrolean Alps ; and between them and us 
many are the gaps and ravines that Nature has left unfilled. 
She has protected this little land of Switzerland with 
wondrous solitude and care,* as if to serve for the growth 
and protection of one of her most beautiful flowers ; but 
here towards this Austrian land her fortress is left 
vulnerable, and many have been the bitter battles that her 
carelessness have caused. It is nearly six hundred years 
ago since there on that meadow beneath us took place such 
a fight as the world rarely sees. It was on that field of 
Morgarten that the poor peasantry of Switzerland hurled 

*" The great, wealthy, and powerful nations have always lost then- 
freedom ; it is only in small, poor, and isolated communities that liberty 
has been maintained." — Social Problems^ p. i6 (H. George). 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 23 

back the feudal chivalry of Austria. Armed with but their 
OAvn poor weapons and stout hearts these sons of Swiss soil 
showed the proud barons of Germany that, though men may 
decree distinctions of rank, God dissolves them in the 
moment of battle, and that on the touchstone of life your 
prince and^your peasant are very equal indeed. 

And so it was here mid Alpine snows that true democracy 
first saw the light.* It was for many a year afterwards a 
very tender child : slowly it grew and gradually. In 
Europe, indeed, excepting in the bracing atmosphere of 
mountainous countries, it has rarely thrived. In Norway, 
Scotland, and Wales it has grown steadily, but slowly. In 
America, however, it has reached the full stature of manhood, 
and the great gulf stream of ideas that animates and sustains 
this world of ours is now rushing in full force across the 
Atlantic from America to Wales, Scotland, and Norw^ay, 
and so onward to Europe. 

But now let us examine, with somewhat more detail, 
what are the ideals of democracy which, it is everywhere 
admitted, are such potent forces in modern societies. 

It may be urged that all modern and civilised States, 
such as England, France, Germany, and the United States 
(to name the more important ones) are in truth democratic, 
and yet look at the extraordinary diversity of their social 
life and ideals ! How is it possible to find any common 
principle animating these four organisms ? In America and, 
to a less extent, in England the ideals of true democracy are, 
it may be admitted, slowly materialising themselves ; in 
France, and still less in Germany, the only equality is that 
of the polling booth, and the utter futility of that as a basis 
for true democracy was long ago scoffed at by Carlyle. 

* " Ye crags and peaks, I'm with you once again ! 
I hold to you the lands you first beheld, 
To show they still are free. Methinks I hear 
A spirit in your echoes answer me, 
And bid your tenant welcome to his home 
Again. O, sacred forms, how proud you look, 
How high you lift your heads into the sky ! 
How huge you are : how mighty and how free ! " 



24 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

In France there is a legal equality of manhood ; but the 
French people may be regarded as a pyramid of officials, 
Avhich begins and rests upon the peasantry and workmen, 
and, passing through a hierarchy of public functionaries, 
culminates in the President. In Germany the same holds 
true, excepting that the Emperor is the apex of the pyramid. 

In America there is no pyramid, the President is simply 
a shooting star — a meteor that is for a moment bright 
against the dead uniformity of the azure blue, only to sink 
again to the normal level of citizenship when his task is 
o'er. In America there is no official class : everyone may 
be an official to-day and to-morrow, but he is always a 
citizen. In Germany and France, on the other hand — once 
an official always an official — and it is only by accident that 
one is a citizen. This is a most important distinction to 
note between the ideals implied or understood of modern 
States, and to English people it is indispensable that this 
distinction should be recognised and properly appraised. 

We are, by our geographical position, the half-way house 
between Europe and America, and in our social and 
educational ideals we are subject constantly to the attraction 
of these two very different ideals. Let me endeavour to 
bring out concisely these two ideals, more particularly as 
exemplified in the educational machinery of these States. 
In Europe every individual is looked upon as part of the 
State machine ; and whether it be as soldier, teacher, or 
merchant, he is deliberately trained by the State for that 
purpose. The only " rights " of the individual in such 
States is his right to be perfectly trained to take his 
preordained place in the national machine. Consequently, in 
such communities each school has a definite and clear task 
set it ; every school in such a State provides an ad hoc 
education for its pupils. A liberal education as understood 
in America or England is unknown in such a country. 

In the true democratic State, on the contrary, such as 
America, the right of each individual is recognised as 
paramount. The foundation-stone of such society is that 
every member of the community is entitled to full develop- 
ment. It is held that it is the first duty of the State to fit 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 25 

all its children for full complete citizenship, firstly for the 
sake of the child and only secondly for the sake of the State > 

In such a State it is held to be a wicked heresy to deny 
any child of the State full opportunities for training. Not 
only must the precocious child be allowed full growth, but 
every child. To place artificial limits either of age or of 
class is to be false to the teaching of true democracy and to 
be disloyal to the State. Nay, more, it is better for the 
State to waste somewhat of its resources in finding its 
intellectual treasures than to risk losing them altogether. 
For in such a State neither the tonnage of its merchantmen 
nor the price of its consols counts against the children in its 
schools. It is there in its schools that its national capital is 
banked." 

It is unnecessary to point out how in these matters we 
English people, with our natural tendency to compromise, 
seem to have hit the happy, or, perhaps, unhappy mean, and, 
as a people, we are subject constantly to these opposing 
forces, as represented by the bureaucratic systems of 
Europe and the free, unprofessional system of America, f 

* " For greatest of all the enormous wastes which the present 
constitution of society involves is that of mental power. How 
infinitesimal are the forces that concur to the advance of civilisation as 
compared to the forces that lie latent ! How few are the thinkers, the 
discoverers, the inventors, the organisers, as compared with the great 
mass of the people ! Yet such men are born in plenty ; it is the con- 
ditions that permit so few to develop." — Progress and Poverty, p. 332. 

t It is difBcult to summarise this matter concisely, but it may be put 
thus : In the European State the future of the individual is irrevocably 
settled at an early age, and it is practically impossible for him to 
reverse this decision. But it is a matter of daily experience that the 
real aptitudes of individuals are often developed comparatively late in 
life. Now, in such a democratic State as America, no unnecessary 
obstacle is placed in the way of the individual cultivating these special 
aptitudes, even though they may appear late in life. Hence the career 
of a democratic American appears to the European curiously diversified 
and unprofessional. How can a man be a judge to-day and president 
of a University to-morrow ? To me this ready adaptability of the 
social organism is of immense value to the State ; but, on the other 
hand, there can be no doubt but that it lends itself to a good deal of 
charlatanism, and encourages superficiality and smartness at the 
expense of thoroughness, 

C 



26 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

Fortunately for our serenity, we, as a people, are really not 
very much interested in these educational matters — there 
are so many other momentous matters, such as football 
matches and horse racing, to engage our attention, that it 
is only when our religious leaders come out into the market 
place and beg us to save the State from that arch-fiend, the 
enemy, or when, again, some doleful spirit assures us that 
our commercial supremacy is going or gone because 
Germany makes more aniline dies than we do, that we are 
at last stirred to take a spasmodic interest — not, of course, 
in education (that is really too much to expect), but in 
certain aspects of school work. 

I have said that England is the half-way house : it is 
the battle-ground between two ideals — between two con- 
ceptions of social co-operation — between two views of life. 
Here meet two great streams of modern thought — the 
individualistic, in which the rights of the individual are 
admitted as supreme, and the socialistic, in which these 
individual rights are indeed recognised, but not as supreme 
— rather as subordinate to the State. Hence in our public 
life to-day there are to be observed two great streams of 
thought. The first, the socialistic, looks to Germany for its 
ideal. It sees in the disciplined obedience, the magnificent 
organisation, the high standard of intellectual skill of the 
Fatherland, its ideal. 

This party is characterised by its high standard of 
intellectuality — its respect for culture — its desire of instruc- 
tional efficiency in the school, and is apt to imagine that by 
inscribing on its banner the magic word " efficiency " it has 
captured the Rosetta stone that will read the riddle of 
national success. But are we not all for efficiency now-a- 
days ? Let us beware lest we become the victims of a 
phrase. 

The other stream of thought is too instinctive for 
utterance. It is because it is so true that it is so silent. 
The great forces of the universe are so deep as to be 
noiseless ; the little ones so superficial as to be harsh, 
strident and grating. So this deep instinctive thought of 
the English people — that which sees in the free, spontaneous 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 27 

development , of each individual the highest good of the 
State, looks across the Atlantic for its ideal and sees in the 
crowned glory of the setting sun the crimson radiance of 
the dawn. 

If we consider for a moment this question of individual 
liberty it will be observed that in the evolution of the ideal 
three phases are distinguishable. The development of 
freedom may be represented by three concentric circles. 
Thus the innermost and smallest circle will represent man 
and his environment under that phase of liberty which, to 
my mind, is best defined by the word legality. This is the 
first stage wrung from wrong by humanity, and in it the 
highest good of citizenship is the equality of all men before 
the law. The next, a larger circle, corresponding to a 
fuller environment of man, I would designate the era of 
fraternity, in which not only are the liberties greater, but so 
also are the corresponding obligations. In this stage in the 
evolution of society men are banded together as brothers of 
a family for mutual help and defence, and within the family 
or nation the mutual obligation of each to all and all to 
each is fully recognised as combined with a corresponding 
freedom. But, just as the family has a head man in 
the father, so such a community has for its head a King, 
Emperor, or President. Whatever be his title, he is in loco 
parentis to all the members of the community, and, just as 
in the organisation of families each individual is trained to 
undertake certain tasks and fill recognised and definite 
positions, so in such States every member is deliberately 
trained for certain duties and is allocated to predetermined 
positions. 

But the outermost, widest circle of all represents the third 
phase in the development of human liberty, and this phase 
I designate as the era of Equality, Here the freedom of 
each individual member of the community is absolutely 
complete : not only is he free before the law, not only is he 
socially free within the community, but he is free in all — 
free to become whatever his Maker intended him to be. 
Every man in this phase of society has absolute equality 
of opportunity. Whether he be the son of a peer or of a 

c 2 



28 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 



ploughman, whether boy or girl, man or woman— nothing 
whatsoever may stand between the individual and complete 
development, •' In such a State even a peer's son will be 
allowed to grow up a useful, cultured member of society ; 
he will not be expected to pass an empty, idle existence 
between Pall Mall and Piccadilly ; and if a nobleman have 
genius, such a community will not think it its duty to banish 
him to the boisterous atmosphere of an Upper House, but 
will allow him to utilise his abilities in the manner most 
conducive to communal prosperity. 

In Germany the duty of the individual to the community 
is recognised ; in America not only that, but also the 
obligations of the community to the individual are admitted. 
I look upon this practical equality of opportunity of the 
American Commonwealth as the ideal towards which we 
here in England must move. Of course, like all ideals, this 
has its limitations. If we would obtain it we must be 
prepared to sacrifice much that is dear to some English 
people. We must, for a time at any rate, tolerate a certain 
amount of inefficiency, a loss of practical effectiveness, a 
lack of economy in working, and generally a want of 
directness and completeness in administration. 

I think that the reader will best understand what I 
mean if I say that the German and French systems 
of education are tidy, whilst those of England and 
America are untidy. The democratic systems, for a 
time at any rate, are characterised by a lack of 
definiteness and clear outline. The true democracy is 
neither afraid of the overlapping of different classes of 
schools, nor is it prepared to draw lines of demarcation 
between schools primary and secondary. This cry of over- 
lapping generally arises from class jealousies and from 
people who before all else want a tidy system, in which the 
sphere of operations of each school is clearly and rigidly 
laid down. 



*" Bring horse and man to the water, let them drink it if and when 
they will ; the child who desires education will be bettered by it, the 
child who dislikes it only disgraced." — Rnskin, 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 2g 

The bureaucracy of such countries as France or 
Germany will for many years doubtless be able to turn 
out better instructed parts for the national machine. But let 
us not forget that our conception of education means much 
more than mere instruction. By it we connote all those 
factors, visible and invisible, that go to build up the 
individual character in accordance with the national ideal ; 
and that ideal has a deeply ethical and spiritual basis that 
cannot be analysed or evaluated. 

Education in a true democracy is so complex a matter as 
to be beyond the work of any school, however efficient. 
Education is in truth self-knowledge, self-reverence, self- 
control. It is the drawing out (not the putting in) of each 
individual whatever is noblest and best in him. In a true 
democracy the divinity of the personality of each individual 
is recognised. In such a community it is recognised that 
there is within each child of the State some effulgence, as it 
were, of the Eternal. It is not the piling of facts in a 
child's head, but it is the developing outward from the 
child's heart of his reverence for the Good, the Beautiful, 
and the True. It is a liberating of the " imprisoned 
splendour" that is within us all. Every child has within it 
a spark of the Eternal, a flash of the Infinite, and it is the 
work of the school to make visible and real that spark and 
flash. Education — true education — is indeed a revelation in 
self-consciousness. 

In the true democratic State the educational ideal is so to 
organise and complete the national school that there may be 
provided for each child of the State every means of fu!l 
growth — mental, physical, and moral. 

In such a school so elastic must be the curriculum an 1 
methods as to allow full freedom for individuality to 
develop. The curriculum must fit the child, not the child 
the curriculum. In such a State the idea of a curriculum 
drafted by a central authority, and intended for use in all 
schools, such as is the case in France and to a less extent in 
Germany, is utterly repugnant. Not only will each school 
have a curiiculuni peculiar and appropriate only to itself, 
but, having laid in the primary school the foundations of all 



3© THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

culture, there will in the secondary school be found room for 
a curriculum peculiar and appropriate to each individual 
child. The sanctity of personality must be recognised if the 
school is to be a really national school. It is a wicked 
heresy which attempts in any way to crush or warp the 
growth of individuality in the school. 

The schools of France and Germany and England are 
to-day busily transmuting the precious gold of individuality 
and personal variety into the gross and base brass of 
uniformity. The splendid school systems of France and 
Germany are, in this respect at any rate, the curse of child- 
hood, and I confess that to me there is an infinitely greater 
potency and value in the ignorance of an Elizabethan 
England than in the organised culture of a modern Europe." 

The conception of equality of opportunity for all- — " all 
for each and each for all " — is the working hypothesis, so to 
speak, of the true democratic State. Let us now consider 
how this principle may be carried out in the State system 
of education, how it affects the administration, the curricula, 
and the methods of the school ; for all these, be it remem- 
bered, are conditioned by the school's ideal and purpose. 

The outstanding characteristic of a national system of 
education in the democratic State is, that as in such State 
there are no class distinctions, so in its schools the only 
distinctions recognised are those dependent upon variations 
in intellectual and moral capacity. Hence in this State there 
are no class schools, no sectarian schools, no undenomina- 
tional schools ; indeed, there are no primary schools, no 
secondary schools ; in fine, in such a community but one 
school is found, and that is the national school. In such a 
system there is absolutely no class distinction between one 
school and another or one teacher and another. The 
secondary scholar and teacher will differ from the primary 
scholar and teacher only in so far as their intellectual 
equipment and task vary. In this national school every 

* " It is taken for granted that any education must be good ; that tlie 
more of it we get the better ; that bad education only means httle 
education ; and that the worst thing we have to fear is getting none. 
Aias, that is not at all so. Getting no education is by no means the worst 
thing that can happen to us." — Ruskin. 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 3! 

child of the State will be found — those under twelve or 
fourteen in the lower school, and those above that age and 
with fuller intellectual abilities in the upper school. The 
essential solidarity of the national system of schools is fully 
recognised , in the democratic State. There is in such a 
community but one national school and teacher. 

From the Kinder- Garten to the primary school will be the 
history of the school-life of every child of the State, and 
with that training over 90 per cent, of the State's children 
must needs be content ; but the others — the future intellectual 
aristocracy, the social and political leaders of the people — 
those who already show, not by examination, but by their 
whole school life, as watched by the teacher, the possession 
of special abiUty and aptitude ; these, I say, that are the 
only real national capital, will proceed to the national 
secondary school, where they will receive that further 
development and training which it is the blessed privilege of 
the community to provide for them. 

These children will proceed to the secondary school not 
because of unusual precocity, as evidenced in a competitive 
examination, but because of unusual intelligence as evidenced 
in a school career. 

But further than this solidarity of the national school 
must be recognised the right to mutual independence 
of each constituent section of that school, namely, the 
Kinder-Garten, and the so-called primary and secondary 
schools. In the true democratic State these are mutually 
independent, none is recognised as subordinate or pre- 
paratory to the other. They are equal and self-contained. 
The task of each is essentially identical, namely, to develop 
the child fully, freely and spontaneously during the years it 
is a pupil there. 

Each school will consider no matter but this — how best 
to educate the child for full citizenship.* And the national 

* " He had been eight years at a public school, and had learnt, I 
understand, to make Latin verses of several sorts in the most admirable 
manner. But I never heard that it had been anybody's busmess to find 
out what his natural bent was, or where his failings lay, or to adapt 
any kind of knowledge to him. He had been adapted to the verses, 



32 tHE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

school has no other task but this — it is to give the State a 
constant supply of citizens, an army of well-trained privates 
and a corps of carefully selected and highly cultured officers, 
trained to citizenship, not to any form of craftsmanship. 
The national school must content itself with a liberal 
education. Specialisation in any form must follow, not 
accompany, this liberal training. I would emphasise this 
right to perfect independence not only of each constituent 
department of the national school, but of the school itself as 
a whole. This school must train for life. It must prepare 
its pupils for the aggregate common life, not the life of the 
counting-house or the consulting-room. 

Further, any school that is looked upon merely as a 
preparatory school to another school must suffer. The 
Kinder- Garten undoubtedly suffers from being looked upon 
as preparatory to the primary school, and the primary 
suffers when considered as a feeder for the secondary, and 
the secondary school, in its turn, suffers when treated 
merely as a fitting school for the University. I am 
afraid I shall be misunderstood ; but, if you will consider 
the matter, you will see that what is needed is not a modify- 
ing of curricula from below upwards, as is now the case, 
but rather from the top downwards. The reform of curricula 
must begin in the University, not in the Kinder- Garten. 
In brief, I may state my point of view thus : When the 
independence of each school and its true duty towards the 
child have been recognised, then each department — 

and had learnt the art of making them to such perfection that if he had 
remained at school until he was of age I suppose he could only have 
gone on making them over and over again unless he had enlarged his 
education by forgetting how to do it. Still, although I have no doubt 
that they were very beautiful, and very improving, and very sufficient 
for a great many purposes of life, and always remembered all through 
life, I did doubt whether Richard would not have profited by someone 
studying him a little instead of his studying them quite so much." — 
Bleak House, C. Dickens. 

However, this studying of childhood must not degenerate into the 
awful analysing, of children as shown by Miss Blimber's treatment of 
poor little Paul Dombey. " It will naturally be very painful (to your 
fatlier) to find that you are singular in yr.ur character and conduct." 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 33 

primary, secondary, and academic — will receive the child 
completely (i.e., harmoniously) developed, and will be pre- 
pared to continue that development a stage further. It will 
be for the primary school to build upon the foundation of the 
Kinder-Garten, for the secondary to build upon the work of 
the primary, 'and for the University to complete the edifice 
by building upon the work of the secondary school. Until 
this independence of the school is recognised it will suffer 
from diffusion of energy and be the victim of ignorant 
controversy. 

It must be clearly recognised that the one purpose of all 
school training is the making of citizens — the building-up 
of men and women — cultured, loyal, resourceful — prepared 
for the burden and privileges of our civilization. Once this 
aim has been recognised there will be no longer heard these 
noisy, blatant cries for a commercial practical education. 
Of course, all true education must be practical. It must be 
built firmly on the rock of child experience and be knitted 
to the life the child will live, but to try and turn our schools 
into mere fitting-shops for the crafts is the very acme of a 
fatuous policy. The curriculum of every school must be 
real, then it will be practical. That is to say, the curriculum 
must be such as will make the child's own being (with its 
surrounding world) real and intelligible to him. His school 
training should make all that surrounds him real to him, and 
make himself intelligible to himself. Then will he knoAv 
what duty, justice, reverence, truth mean ; he will understand 
that profound maxim of life, the golden rule ; and work will 
no longer mean the satisfying of the animal, but the 
fashioning of the spiritual within himself. 

This criterion of reality in curricula brings out the futility 
of much of our present-day training. Our schools to-day, with 
their literary curricula, their constant appeals to the head, 
and their neglect of the heart or of the hand of the child, are 
offensive to the practical man, who feels in a vague, instinc- 
tive way that something is very wrong in a system of 
training which results in making country lads, town loafers, 
and labourers' sons, clerks. The fact is, indeed, that 
nothing is more patent than the unreality of our school 



34 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

training and the general detachment and aloofness of our 
school from the great world outside. 

It is in the primary school that the seer will best cast 
the horoscope of a people. If there he sees mere 
intellect worshipped, instruction installed as god, and 
knowledge called power, then will the crystal become 
clouded, and the future dark with fateful possibilities ; 
if, again, he sees in a people's schools, and in a nation's 
high places, enthusiasm sneered at, knowledge despised, 
and earnestness scoffed at, then be sure that there, too, 
the prophet will see dark things in the glass, and his 
mind will be troubled with forebodings for the future. There 
is no feature of public life in England more heartrending 
than to observe the utterly false ideal of what is "good 
form. " in society. In England alone is a professional man 
sneered at who takes his profession seriously. In England 
alone is it considered " bad form " for a man to talk '^shop.'' 
Yet it is these men who talk ''shop" and cannot say, or, 
perhaps, do "smart things," that are the salt of our people 
to-day, and they are the men to whom the nation 
instinctively turns in time of trouble. This desire for smart- 
ness and cleverness is the curse of our modern England.* 
The popular preacher, the successful politician is he who is 
continually saying and doing smart things. To be popular one 
must be cynical, pessimistic, and clever. The days when 
men in England believed in themselves, believed in their 
country and its civilising mission, have passed away. 

To-day everyone, of course, believes in England's mission, 
but the point of view has altered. In the past this mission 
was sincerely and truly undertaken, because it was a 

* " That will-o'-the-wisp hight, ' cleverness ' in schools and ' genius ' 
in more sapient regions, has sucked more into the lilthy mantled pools 
of conceited ignorance or hopeless despair, and stopped more work 
than any other cause, besides being at the bottom of much false teach- 
ing, and lurmg nations lo their destruction by false ghtter. Prizes 
which few can win are dangled in the air by public opinion." And 
elsewhere the same writer observes: — "Cleverness is common enough, 
but the steadfast worth that can patiently endure is wanting." — 
Education and School, p. 35, Thrixg. 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 35 

civilising mission ; it was done for the sake of others ; to-day 
it is undertaken for commercial purposes, and cynically 
admitted that it is done mainly for our own sakes. England 
to-day is suffering not from a poor school system so much 
as from two other immensely more important social forces. 
The first of these is the ideal of amateurishness that permeates 
the educated classes of England, and the second is the 
absolute indifference of the great mass of our people 
to all the nobler ideals of national life. If it were not for a 
few bright souls, who amid the gloom of indifference, 
cynicism, and ignorance that make up the national life, 
constantly keep alive the sacred flame of national culture, 
and with their hearts full of hope keep their gaze fixed upon 
the peaks and pinnacles, looking for the warm, red glow of 
the rising sun, I say if it were not for these few this England 
of ours would to-day be in a sad phght indeed. It is all 
very fine to speak of blazoning efficiency on your banner, 
but you must first engrave " earnestness " in the hearts 
of your intellectual leaders. England needs more character 
in her intellect even more than she needs more intellect in 
her character. 

This worship of false gods — this veneration for super- 
ficiality, for mere smartness, for cleverness ; in a word, this 
toleration of amateurishness throughout her national life 
must be abolished, must be relentlessly cut out, as 
a cancer, from the body politic, if England is to be 
worthy of and true to her mission. And having cut that 
out, the second curse of our national life will quickly 
disappear. This indifference to the higher ideals of life of 
the great mass of our people is largely due to the cynicism 
and hypocrisy of the intellectual leaders of the people. Get 
the guides and leaders out into the bracing and clear air of 
some mountain height, and they will see more reality and 
greater beauty, their vision will be clearer and wider, the 
tones of their voices will alter, the thoughts that move them 
to action will become deeper and broader ; and behold, when 
they beckon to their people and speak to them, more solemn 
will sound their voices, richer will be the imagination that 
prompts them, nobler and holier will be the ideals that 



36 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

animate them, and echoing down the heights will their 
thoughts pass until they find rest in the cottages below. 

Let me now say a word as to the curriculum of this 
national school in the democratic State. The curriculum of 
any school is conditioned entirely by the purpose of the 
school. So that before we can proceed any further it is 
indispensable that we agree as to the purpose of the national 
school. Fortunately for us, that purpose is contained and 
implied in the title of the school. This school is deliberately 
designed by the State for the making of citizens. 

That statement, however, though sufficient for 
ordinary purposes, is hardly embracing enough for 
us. We would go further, and say, *' True, the State 
looks to its schools for its supply of citizens, but this term 
citizens is both vague and variable ; cannot you tell us what 
you mean ; what you aim at in this process of education ; 
what is the really significant purpose of true education?" 
and putting the matter thus we see we have at last touched 
bottom. What is the purpose of education ? Is it the 
acquisition of knowledge ? Is it the training of the intellect ? 
Is it the development of character? Nay, it is none of 
these, but all of them. As Edward Thring once put it : 
*' The whole system of schools in this country has been 
reconstructed at a vast expense, much of it permanent and 
unchangeable. What answ^er have these architects of mind 
given to the great question which their reconstructive work 
supposes them to have mastered ? Is education the making 
the mind full ? or is it making the mind strong ? Is 
teaching the putting in facts, or drawing out and practising 
latent powers ? Or is there something else not yet above 
the horizon ?" (Theory and Practice, p. ii.) And elsewhere 
he writes : " This transmission of life from the living, 
through the living, to the living, is the highest definition of 
education." {Ihtd, p. 36.) Education is the fostering of 
power. All true education is a grow^th in power. 
Whatever makes the individual know himself better 
is education. For to know himself he must know and 
understand all outside himself, his environment of humanity 
and nature, and by so knowing clearly, intimately, and 



THE DEAIOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 37 

" truthfully,'^ he will know ivhat he is and what that is, hs 
will see himself outside himself, he will project himsslf into 
the phenomena of the universe, he will recognise and so 
reverence, the beautiful within himself, the true within 
himself, and the good within himself. To know oneself is a 
complete education, for it means not only self-knowledge, 
but self-reverence, self-control ; and attaining those things 
we touch the ideal. 

Hence, all education must be the development of the 
being ; anything that does not result in growth of power is 
not education. Knowledge that does not really enter into 
the fibre of the child's being is worse than useless ; it is 
only what is truly assimilated that is nutritious. And there 
is a limit, be it remembered, to the digestive capacities of 
children, even as there is to those of the City Fathers. I 
am convinced that in our schools to-day we are constantly 
forgetting this fact of the limitations of children's feeding 
powers. " Never try to fill the little mind with lumber 
under colour of its being of use by and by. Lumber does 
not excite thought, lumber does not interest, lumber does 
breed disgust ; nothing should be put into the mind which is 
not wanted immediately, and which is not also the easiest 
way of meeting the want." (Thring, p. i66.) Further, the 
unpalatable and nauseous nature of much of the food 
provided must not be forgotten ; yet despite these facts we 
thrust the food down wholesale, and then wonder that the 
children cannot retain it, but evacuate it at the first 
opportunity. 

* " Trainini£ means accuracy. Observation and accuracy are twins. 
The beginning of all true work is accurate observation, the end and 
crown of all true work is an accuracy which observes everything, and 
lets nothing escape, a power of observation animated by a true love for 
what it undertakes to investigate, and able through love to discover 
subtler truth than other people. Observation and accuracy comprise 
all that it is possible for a teacher to do, whatever may be the subject 
with which he has to deal, and observation and accuracy ought first to 
be as the joy of the explorer to the curious child ; who should be made 
to see in every word he speaks, and every common thing he sets e^'es 
on, endless surprises and novelties at every turn of unexpected pleasure 
and new delight." — Thring, Education and School, p. 102. 



38 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

It is the fetish of knowledge that is enthroned as deity in 
our schools to-day.* '' Experience has shown that an undue 
attention to knoAvledge and undue honour paid to learning, 
is the characteristic of decline." (Thring, p. 123.) An old 
wag once said that knowledge is power , and the world has gone 
on repeating it ever since. 

A much truer saying is that old Welsh maxim that the 
best weapon is the weapon of learning. It is not knowledge 
but the power of acquiring knowledge that is the real 
purpose of education. " Shoving in the regulation quantity 
into the pupils, to be pulled out again on demand, is one 
thing ; clearing the bewildered brain, and strengthening the 
mind, is another." (Thring, p. 133.) 

The work of the school must be estimated by the 
amount of power that it develops in its pupils, f The power 
of doing, the power of thinking, the power of acquisition, 
the power of controlling and obeying, aye, and the power of 
believing, which is so sadly lacking in our schools of to-day, 
and which has resulted in that appalling lack of reverence 



* '* English schools have suffered from this fetish of knowledge to a 
greater extent, perhaps, than any other schools. Even to-day, to the 
vast majority of Englishmen, the success of a system of education is 
directly proportioned to the amount of knowledge of facts that a child 
carries away from school with him. We hear merchants complain 
that the boys coming into their offices from school are ignorant of 
book-keeping or shorthand, while the farmer complains that the school 
turns sturdy boys into weak and lazy labourers." 

t " Every power of the child must be developed ; his spiritual, his 
intellectual, and his physical powers must each and all be trained to 
completeness if the school is to do its duty to the Nation. Not for the 
child's sake only — though this is an inalienable right of childhood — but 
for the community's sake must the pupil's powers be completely 
trained. I confess I find it difficult to understand how we can train 
the intellectual powers of childhood and ignore the spiritual and 
physical. The Nation needs complete children, not amputated 
homunculi. Let us train all our children, not portions of them. We 
must utilise the whole of our national capital ; for the powers of 
childhood are the gold mines of England. No Golconda yields riches 
so readily, so richly, and so luxuriantly as these. Let us, then, lay up 
for ourselves treasures here in this bank of a completely developed 
childhood." 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 39 

for everything nobler than themselves in our children — it is 
these things that we must look for in our schools if we 
would have them give us good brave men and women, fully 
prepared for their tasks, and imbued with those deeper 
spiritual forces that are the wells whence the nation draws 
its life and strength. And may we not summarise the whole 
of this matter by saying that education is training. Educa- 
tion is not merely intellectual training — nor even only moral 
training — but it is indeed a training in self-control, which 
results from a full realising of self. To train the will is the 
great purpose of school life. It is not sufficient that one 
knows right from wrong : one must needs will the right and 
avoid the wrong. It is what one does, not what one 
knows, that matters. Habits, not facts, are what we must 
acquire. 

Now let us consider how this power of which we have 
spoken may be developed in the school. Every child must 
be considered in three aspects, first as thinker, next as doer, 
and, thirdly, as worshipper : any system of education which 
neglects any one of these three aspects of human nature is 
incomplete and defective. Consequently, to develop the 
power of the child as thinker, actor and worshipper is the 
first purpose of school training ; but, further, it must be 
remembered that the child is not a mere point in space, 
absolutely indifferent to his surroundings. Nay, rather, his 
whole being will be constantly modified by his surroundings, 
and, indeed, this environment will be as much himself as he 
is. The world we live in is as much a real part of ourselves 
as we are, the personality of each one of us is like a coin 
with its obverse and reverse sides — they are different yet 
inseparable. Hence to know oneself is not merely to know 
ourself, but that other self, the outside self. To put it in 
another form, I would say that every child must be made 
intimately cognisant not only of itself, but of the civilisation 
and world into which it is born. And this world into which 
each of us is born and in which we move and live and have 
our being, is made up of two factors only — Nature and man. 
There is, on the one hand, that beautiful web of phenomena 
which Nature has spun around us, and, on the other hand, 



40 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

there are those many human souls that complete our world 
and round off our lives.''' 

So that school training must aim. at developing the child 
as an actor, as a worshipper, and as a thinker— and to be an 
actor, thinker, worshipper, under right influences, he must 
know the world in which he lives. Therefore the purpose 
of any school whatsoever must be this growth of power in 
thinking, in doing, and in worshipping. Consequently, the 
curriculum of any school must contain those subjects only 
which fulfil this purpose. 

To develop the child as thinker we must include the 
study of the mother tongue in, e.g., reading, by which the 
thoughts of the race are made available to the pupil. By 
reading he is introduced to the master spirits of all time — to 
those men who have led and are leading us to the stars, f But, 
further, we must develop the child's power of thought 
expression by speech, writing, drawing, and the so-called 
manual training. To develop the child as actor we will 
include history in the curriculum. By history the child 
acquires the experience of the race, he learns his place in 



* " Not knowledge, but the power of acquiring knowledge ; not the 
description of emotions, but the cultivation of right emotions ; not a 
being surfeited with facts culled from everywhere, but a being whose 
personality is in constant and exquisitely tuned responsiveness to all 
around it — that is the aim of all school training that is of real per- 
manent national value." 

t Reading is to the multitude what travelling is to the few By 
means of reading we extend the world of observation — it is like 
handing a telescope to the novice. Through it new worlds come into 
view. His life becomes at once more real — fuller and richer and wider. 
Nevertheless even into this new and wider world which books bring 
into his view the reader carries and projects his actual experience. 
What he reads of is painted on a canvas of his own making, what he 
sees in imagination is but his daily life of observation, writ larger 
or bolder it may be. And so it is that to appreciate fully the advantages 
of travelling, of beautiful pictures, of great books and noble ideals, one 
must needs be educated up to the standard of these books, pictures and 
ideals. Children are singularly irresponsive to beautiful scenery, and 
I know not a few admirable people whose recollections of Zermatt are 
inextricably mixed with pdtc dc foie ^ras, and those of Cologne with 
unpleasant odours. 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 4I 

society and his duties and privileges as citizen. It makes 
the world of to-day intelligible to him, and he becomes an 
actor under correct influences. To develop the child as 
worshipper of all that is good and true and beautiful, to 
develop within him that sense of reverence for nobler things, 
is the highest function of the school, and to do it we must 
call into play all those forces within our common life, 
whether they be religious, ethical or moral, that have lifted, 
and are lifting, our people to higher conceptions of duty and 
nobler ideals of conduct. To aid in this supreme work we 
will invoke the examples of history, the art of the musician, 
the painter, and the sculptor, and the sweet emotionalism 
and stern sense of duty of the poet and philosopher. We 
must teach our pupils the significance of the poet's words — 

I slept, and dreamed that life was beauty ; 
I woke, and found that life was duty.* 

Lastly, we must consider the other — the environmental — 
side of the curriculum, the humanistic factor of which we 
have already met by our study of history ; but there is to be 
considered that world of Nature, organic and inorganic, that 
surrounds the child on every side, and which he must needs 
understand, if he is to be an actor, under the influence of 
complete knowledge and of right judgment. 

Consequently, elementary physical science must needs 
form an indispensable subject in the curriculum of every 

* " In the spiritual training we give him let it be our aim not to 
provide him with the data of certain forms of faith and ceremonial, 
but rather let us, with infinite endeavour, cultivate in him a correct 
attitude towards life. Nourish in him true reverence, foster in him 
real humility towards whatever is nobler and better than himself, and 
then for his faith the good God will provide. A right up-bringing 
means correct attitude, and this attitude is possible only when every- 
thing is reasonable. If we develop the whole of our child, and 
engender in him a many-sided interest in life, this will lead to a 
full knowledge, correct judgments, and a rational and reverential 
attitude toward all the physical and spiritual phenomena of the 
universe. We may, by formulae and ordinances, produce in our 
children the similitude of reverence ; but true reverence, the reverence 
that lies at the base of a good man's character, can only be built upon 
understanding and knowledge." 

D 



42 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION, 

school, and the science of number (arithmetic) is equally 
necessary, in order that the child may quantify and locate 
his experience. The world of organic Nature will be made 
intelligible by the subjects of Nature study and geography. 
By a course in Nature study the child becomes acquainted 
with that teeming world of life around him, which is only 
equalled in its beauty by its diversity, and which develops 
in the child a reverence for Nature, a sense of responsibility 
towards himself, and a deep feeling of gratitude to his God. 
Finally, the child's knowledge of the world around him will 
be completed by a course in geography dealing with the 
surface features of the world in which he lives. 

For complete education, then, I hold that this curriculum 
which we have sketched is, for essential purposes, the only 
curriculum available. If the child of the State is to receive 
complete development, then all these powers must be 
developed in the primary school ; whilst if special aptitude 
has been shown scholars will be sent on to the secondary 
school. 

The curriculum of the secondary school should consist 
essentially of the same elements as the primary school. It 
should be a fuller development of the primary school 
curriculum ; thus the study of the mother tongue of the 
primary school will lead up to the fuller study of the mother 
tongue or other linguistic studies of the secondary school ; 
the history of the homeland will lead up to the history of 
other lands in the secondary school, the sciences will become 
more exact, the geography will pass into physiography and 
the natural history sciences, whilst the arithmetic naturally 
leads to the mathematics of the secondary school. Thus do 
we secure our solidarity of curriculum in the national school 
whether primary or secondary. So you will observe that 
the main features of the democratic ideal in education are : 
The right of each child of the State to complete growth ; 
the solidarity of the national school ; the independence 
of each of its parts and of itself as a whole ; the solidarity 
and unity of the curricula of the schools — the solidarity 
of the teaching profession ; and, lastly, the recognition in 
the school of the sanctity of the personality of each child. 



THIv DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 4.3 

This ma}' all appear very Utopian, idealistic and impossible 
to many ; nevertheless, I believe, with Emerson, in hitching 
my wagon to a star. It is by fixing our eyes on the stars 
and planting our feet on the earth that we shall at last reach 
the summit., And, after all, let us not forget that it is the 
aiming at, not the hitting of, ideals that is the motive force 
behind all human endeavour. 






D 2 



44 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 



CHAPTER III, 



The Ideal in Practice* 

There is perhaps nothing more characteristic to-day of the 
modern world than the growth of the feeUng of world 
citizenship. Against a certain type of patriotism the steam 
engine and electric telegraph have dealt a fatal blow — none 
the less fatal that its results are not clearly perceived. That 
ignorance is the greatest of curses, and that to it are due 
all misunderstandings and most quarrels, is to-day a truism. 
Distinctions of language will hinder this growth, it is true ; 
nevertheless, the careful observer to-day notes that beneath 
all the variety of national life, all the distinctions of national 
ideals, there are emerging certain aspects common to that 
life— to that ideal. He sees that there is a well charac- 
terised similarity amid the diversity of these national ideals, 
and that in all civilised communities to-day there is a 
remarkable sameness in the national aims and purposes, and 
that in the search for those aims and purposes are encountered 
the same obstacles. And first of all, and, indeed, chief of all, 
will he observe this struggle towards the democratic ideal in 
national life. Wherever he allows his eyes to rest he will 
observe the community agitated and troubled, almost as it 
were instinctively, by the desire of embodying this 
democratic ideal in the national life. 

In Prussia the people's schools are completely controlled 
and partly maintained by the State. The government 
officials have complete control over curricula, and the teacher 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 45 

himself is a servant of the State. Generally, too, the local 
managers themselves are government officials. The local 
community, the people themselves, have no control or part 
in the management of the school ; indeed, they are expressly 
forbidden from taking any active part in the education of 
their children, and the result is that there is little enthusiasm 
for education among the labouring classes. The school is a 
denominational institution, each sect having a school for the 
use of its children. So powerful, even to-day, are the two 
great sects, the Lutheran and the Catholic, of modern 
Germany, that their hold upon the schools, though not, 
indeed, so complete as in old days, is enormous. In a certain 
narrow sense it may be affirmed that even to-day there are 
no purely State schools in Germany. And although in 
Germany, as elsewhere, the everlasting struggle between 
State and Church has resulted in a certain loosening of the 
bonds of the Church upon the community, and that constant 
struggle has resulted in a certain enfranchisement of the 
schools from the control of the cleric, yet so powerful are 
the reactionary forces, and so united are these forces in this 
one endeavour, that constant compromise has been the rule, 
and only little by little has the freedom of the school been 
accomplished ; and, as I have said, even to-day religion is 
the basis of the curriculum and the priest the arbiter of the 
fate of practically every school in Germany. The growth 
of freedom of thought, and the development of social 
democracy have so far influenced but little the control of 
the primary school. Nearly 70 per cent, of all Prussian 
primary schools are classed as Protestant schools, there arc 
nearly 30 per cent. Catholic schools, and the remainder are 
Jewish schools and mixed schools, where the children of 
different sects are taught together in secular subjects, and 
separately in religious subjects. In these primary schools 
over go per cent, of the children are educated. In them are 
found children between six and fourteen years of age. The 
regularity of attendance is remarkable, and is an admirable 
expression of the powers of Prussian bureaucratic organisa- 
tion. The remarkable lowness of the figures of illiteracy in 
Germany generally is full proof of the effectiveness of this 



46 tHE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

system of primary education as an instructional machine. 
There are, in fact, practically no illiterates in Germany to- 
day. 

This system of Volksschulen " People's Schools," supported 
by the State and controlled by the Church and State, is 
primarily intended for, and, indeed, is utilised mainly by the 
labouring classes, which naturally constitute the great bulk 
of the nation. Only in a few spots and under somewhat unusual 
circumstances are these common schools used by classes 
other than the lower. They are to all intents and purposes 
class schools, and not common schools. The vast bulk of 
all other classes of the community have special schools for 
their children, where they are segregated and as clearly 
defined as cattle in an agricultural show. Germany is, in 
fact, still a country where the caste spirit is strongly felt, 
and where special schools for special classes of society are 
needed and supplied. There is indeed no true common 
school utilised by all classes of the community, and up to the 
present at any rate no special facilities have been provided 
for the passage of the clever pupil from one school to 
another. On the contrary, the future career of the German 
lad is effectually mapped out for him when his parent sends 
him it may be to the Volksschule or to the Vorschule of one 
or other type of secondary school at six or nine years of age. 
Although an attempt has been made of recent years to 
diminish the fatefulness of this choice, and in some cases to 
prolong the date of choice to the age of twelve, yet it is still 
true as a general statement of fact that there is in Germany 
no common school nor educational ladder ; in other words, 
the democratic ideal is in Germany at present little more 
than a beautiful dream of educational and social reformers. 
Certain great intellects have, it is true, even in Germany 
forced a way for themselves from the primary through the 
secondary school to the university, but their triumph is but 
witness of the general failure. In Germany the intellectual 
treasures hidden amid the people are lost. They receive but 
the rough polish the common schools afford, so that they 
never sparkle as cut diamonds in the national crown. 

So, too, is it in France. The State schools, both primary 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 47 

and secondary, are controlled completely by officials, and the 
people themselves have practically no voice in the manage- 
ment of the schools. Officials at Paris frame the curricula 
for practically every school in France, and the details of 
organisation, appointment of teachers, selection of text 
books, etc.,^are entirely carried out by Government officials. 
The private Church schools are inspected as to certain 
matters by the Government officials, at whose will they may 
be opened or closed, but the actual administration of these 
schools is of course in the hands of the people who maintain 
them, that is to say, the congregations themselves. The 
vast bulk of the future citizens of France will be found in 
the Congregational schools or the State schools ; but 
the elite, the odd five per cent, or so, will be found in the 
Communal College, the Lycee, or the Higher Conventual 
School. These latter will be as effectually cut off from the 
former as if Styx lay between. 

The primary schools of France are intended for and 
utilised by the lower classes, and the secondary schools by 
other classes. There is no common school in France where 
the children of peasant and peer sit side by side, nor are the 
facilities for the passage of clever boys from one school to 
the other taken advantage of to any great extent. There is 
no common school and there is no educational ladder in 
France. There are, it is true, scholarships and bursaries 
provided by the State at the secondary school for the 
primary scholar, but the other expenses of the course are so 
great as to make it almost impossible for a poor man's son 
to accept them. This keen line of class distinction between 
primary and secondary school in France and Germany is 
also equally distinct between primary and secondary teacher. 
The solidarity of the profession, of which I have already 
spoken, is unknown in France and Germany ; indeed so long 
as militarism — that Old Man of the Sea— maintains its 
present supremacy in Europe one cannot hope for any real 
democratic developments. 

In England there is no democratic system of national 
education ; indeed, strictly speaking, there is no national 
system of education in England to-day. There is a fairly 



48 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

comprehensive system of schools for the children of certain 
classes of society between the ages of three and fourteen, 
but these schools are not utilised by the middle and 
upper classes, and they bear no direct relationship to any 
schools that may exist above them other than the so-called 
higher elementary schools, which themselves are, to a 
large extent, class schools, and often appeal to a different 
section of the community from that reached by the 
average primary school. This English system of primary 
schools appeals only to and satisfies the needs of the majority 
of the community, but a majority made up of the lower 
classes, socially and intellectually. They have no direct 
connection with the secondary school, and the number of 
pupils who annually pass from the primary to any kind of 
secondary school in England is extremely small, if not, 
indeed, altogether negligible. It is probably smaller than even 
the very small number who do so in Germany, and much 
less probably than in France. In France, and, to a certain 
extent, in Germany, facilities are offered by the authorities 
for clever pupils to pass, by means of scholarships and 
bursaries, from the primary to the secondary school. In 
England this system is in existence only in the wealthier 
and more progressive communities. This lack of co-ordina- 
tion between the primary and secondary school system of 
England is one of the most serious obstacles at present 
existing to the formation of a national democratic system of 
education in England, and it is an obstacle which cannot be 
surmounted for some time, at any rate ; for, truth to tell, 
there is at present no comprehensive system of secondary 
education in England to-day. 

Of all the great modern commonwealths England stands in 
splendid isolation in her lack of appreciation of the absolute 
necessity for national well-being of a popular system of 
secondary education. The present fortuitous concatenation 
of teaching centres that passes for the English secondary 
system has within it some of the best, and many of the 
worst, schools in the world. The best are sometimes 
petrified by classicism, and the worst are always saturated 
by charlatanism. 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 49 

The English public schools are, in some respects, 
unequalled elsewhere, for they have always placed character 
before intellect, and have inculcated ideals of conduct and 
discipline that in many respects are among the most valu- 
able assets in public life. 

Educators are constantly holding up for our admiration 
the primary school system of Germany, and insinuating 
that we should do well to copy this German system in our 
primary schools ; but for my part I would much prefer to 
see our primary schools endeavouring to inculcate in their 
pupils something of the real " public school spirit." 

It would be a fair exchange if we could effect it. Give 
our public schools something of the intellectual efficiency of 
our best primary schools, and in return let the public schools 
give our primary schools something of that spirit of good 
conduct and loyalty that is so characteristic of our greatest 
and best schools. 

But with this the public schools have more or less 
unconsciously created in their pupils a contempt for 
intellectual things which has resulted in that lack of 
earnestness we have already noticed. To these schools may 
be traced the feeling that keenness in anything intellectual 
is bad form, which results in the amateurishness not only of 
the British officer, but of the professional man, too. More- 
over, so complete is the devotion of these schools to the 
classical tongues, that not only are science and modern 
languages placed in a most subordinate position, but even the 
mother tongue receives but scant respect, with the unfortu- 
nate result that the vast majority of the pupils leave school 
utterly unable to express themselves even in the simplest of 
English. Moreover, the cult of athletics, admirable as it 
is in reason, and fruitful as it is in minimising many of the 
evils of the public school system, has too often become a 
fetish, degrading its devotees and lowering their ideals to 
those of a Roman gladiator or a Greek wrestler. 

Below these schools come a vast variety of so-called 
secondary schools equalled in their diversity only by their 
variations of efficiency. The vast majority of these 
schools are so-called private schools, subject to no public 



50 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

control or test whatsoever. I cannot go into a detailed 
description of all these English secondary schools here ; 
suffice it to say that they are badly distributed, generally but 
meagrely equipped, especially for scientific instruction, the 
teachers, as a rule, untrained and poorly paid, the curriculum 
but rarely based upon any philosophical principles; 
in fact a hotch-potch of subjects placed in juxtaposition not 
upon any pedagogic principle, but in order to satisfy as 
many outside authorities {i.e., examiners) as possible ; whilst 
of the private schools as a whole, and, excepting a small 
percentage that is undoubtedly made up of exceedingly 
efficient schools, it can only be said that many of them are 
in no sense secondary ; of others it would be a compliment 
to say that their curriculum was classical and their model 
the public school. The headmaster is sometimes an old 
elementary school teacher, at other times his qualifications 
are best known to himself. However, by the use of various 
mystic symbols duly inscribed on brass plates, and by dint 
of dubbing his establishment a commercial college or a modern 
school, he succeeds in securing victims from that large class 
of people who want something better and more " classy " than 
the public primary school supplies, but who have neither 
faith in nor can they afford the cost of a public school or 
grammar school education. 

Between the comprehensive and, on the whole, fairly 
efficient system of primary education in England, and the 
non-comprehensive, varied, and perhaps, on the whole, mainly 
inefficient and antiquated system of secondary education in 
England there is to-day no co-ordination or relation ; which, 
perhaps, is fortunate, as we may now proceed to attack the 
problem with our eyes open, and, let us hope, with our 
hearts steeled to high resolves. For in this matter we must 
needs be strong to be kind, and there can be no doubt but 
that compromise is impossible with many of the so-called 
private adventure schools. They must be compelled to 
become efficient or disappear. Efficient private schools are 
undoubtedly invaluable in any national system, but no self- 
respecting people can tolerate inefficient schools whether 
public or private. 



THE DEr\fOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 5 1 

Far too long, indeed, have the English school and the 
English child been the victims of weak compromises, and 
it is now time that the strong arm should cut fearlessly and 
effectually, for already our commercial rivals are pressing 
close upon us, and to make our position unassailable we 
must no longer tolerate inefficiency, even under the cloak of 
liberty. 

In America alone is the democratic ideal in education to 
be seen in practice to-day ; and there, too, not only are its 
virtues, but its defects, conspicuous, by reason of their 
magnitude. 

Practically every child between the ages of six and 
fourteen is found in the common schools, while for those 
who have shown the possession of sufficient ability there are 
the free high schools up to the age of eighteen, and in 
many States there is also a national University, free to all. 

Here we have the national schools commencing in the 
free Kinder-Garten and culminating in the free University. 
Everyone with sufficient ability is welcome to take what he 
may from this great national store of culture. Scholarships 
and bursaries are not tolerated, and the system of competi- 
tive examinations for children is not allowed. The great 
treasure house of national culture is open to everyone who 
can produce the one credential, namely, desire and power to 
avail himself of the opportunities there offered. The passage 
between one department and another, between one school 
and the other — in a word, the educational ladder — is as 
complete and as easy as it is possible to make it. There is, 
first of all, the Kinder-Garten for children under six years 
of age, and a better Kinder- Garten than the American it 
would be impossible to find. Between the ages of six and 
fourteen the child passes through the common and grammar 
schools, which together are the equivalent of the European 
primary school. For the vast majority of American citizens 
this age, fourteen, marks the limit of their school life, but 
there are still some half million children who will proceeed 
to the modern secondary training, provided by the American 
high schools. 

Tliere is no official distinction made between these various 



52 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

departments (Kinder- Garten, primary, and secondary) of the 
National school. All are classified under the one title of 
" Common Schools," and it is impossible to determine 
accurately what proportion of the national expenditure goes 
towards each of these three schools. In Europe the line of 
demarcation is so sharp as to be almost impassable, in 
x\merica it is so faint as to be unrecognisable. And so with 
the teachers — no official distinctions are drawn between one 
class and another, and the same qualifications are required 
of all ; all are " common school teachers." The solidarity 
of the teaching profession, from the humblest Kinder- 
Gartner to the High School principal, is completely 
admitted. There is none of that class jealousy so rampant 
in most European countries. England is the half-way 
house ; in theory, at any rate, we all recognise this 
solidarity of the profession, in practice we make mental 
reservations. 

We must not, however, suppose that this American 
democratic system of equality of opportunity is universal ; 
on the contrary, even in America, peopled as it is largely 
by Europeans, there are to be found many to whom this 
levelling of classes in the school is most oflfensive. Conse- 
quently there are a considerable number of private schools 
which are intended to meet the needs of this exclusive class, 
and where the democratic ideal is conspicuous by its absence ; 
but such schools, numerous though they be, are in no sense 
popular or national. 

Further than this perfect co-ordination between the 
various parts of the American national school, must be 
noticed the endeavour made to foster the growth of 
individuality in the school. Both in the primary and in the 
high school, whether by means of specially selected subjects 
and methods, or by offering the child a large choice of subjects 
for study, a vigorous effort is made to nourish individuality. 
The military discipline and routine organisation of the best 
European schools are conspicuous by their absence in the 
American school ; and, instead of the pupil being taught to 
rely upon his teacher for everything and upon himself for 
nothing, the precisely opposite course is adopted, and 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 53 

everything is done to foster self-resource on the part of the 
pupil himself. American teachers have recognised that a 
little power is more valuable than much knowledge. 

Moreover, there is no constant appeal to authority 
everything is challenged to justify itself. Consequently we 
find that natural science and handwork occupy conspicuous 
and important places in the curriculum of this school. 

There is this to be said for this democratic system of 
America — at any rate, it is alive. 

Despite the fact that many of the teachers are untrained, 
and, indeed, but poorly educated, and that the schools are 
made the victims of political trickery, so powerful is this 
injection of the essence of democracy that the whole is 
seething with life and movement, and is instinct with infinite 
possibilities for good. 

Instead of the uniformity, the practical effectiveness, the 
scientific adaptation of means to end, the economy, the lack 
of friction, and the perfect harmony of the European system, 
there is here an immense variety, a waste of effort, an 
extravagance of endeavour, a continual overlapping (for 
here there are no lines of demarcation between the areas of 
the primary and secondary school ; and, consequently, in 
America one hears but little of the jealous cries of " Stand 
off, this is our ground ! "), which, at first sight, seem to offer 
but poor compensation for the practical efficiency of the 
European system — even though the latter be bought by the 
sacrifice of individuality and liberty. Yet that the former 
offers no compensation for the sacrifice demanded I am 
convinced. Better the intellectual levity of America than 
the cultured servitude of Europe: losing liberty, what 
profiteth intellectuality ? 

And let it not be forgotten that these aspects of demo- 
cratic endeavour — superficiality, lack of effectiveness, 
wastefulness — are but passing phases. 

Anon will the real fruit appear, when the whole people 
will have been educated to the standard required of true, 
perfect democracy, and then, as the mists and clouds rise 
and melt away before the rising sun, so will disappear all 
these blemishes, that, arising from an imperfect education, 



54 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

make the work of democracy so difficult to-day. I\Iodern 
democracy falls away from the ideal, not because its ideal 
is too high, but because its training is too low. It is 
ignorance alone that can foul the nest of democracy ; hence 
the eternal prayer of the true democrat is " Educate — 
Educate — for to educate is to live ! " 



'■''^^' 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL Ix\ EDUCATIOxW 55 



CHAPTER IV. 



Difficulties* 

Already, in a general way, and somewhat incidentally, I 
have noticed some of the main difficulties that confront the 
effort to realize the democratic ideal in education. The 
greatest, and perhaps the most difficult of all, is the social 
obstacle arising from class distinctions and the feeling of 
caste that, however carefully hidden, is still the most potent 
of social forces. It is sometimes urged that the social 
problems of modern society have no place in a discussion 
dealing with education, but to this it must be objected that, 
even if one could, it is impossible to separate them. One 
cannot discuss or evaluate a national system of education 
without considering its political aspect, and it is impossible 
to determine its value to the State as a political machine 
unless one takes into account every social force that affects 
its efficiency. The fact is, as I have already pointed out, it 
is impossible to separate the national system of schools from 
the many other social forces that go to make up the national 
life. 

This feeling of caste is perhaps most pronounced in 
Germany. Probably there is no more exclusive caste in the 
world than the Prussian nobles. In Germany consequently 
the common school is impossible, and the educational ladder 
a dream. In Prussia, for example, there is the Volksschulen 
for the labouring classes, the Real schools for the mercantile 
and commercial classes, and the Gymnasien or classical 
schools for the professional, official, and higher classes of 



56 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

society. As a rule, a boy enters one of these three schools 
at six years of age and remains there until the completion of 
his school life. When he leaves he proceeds to fill one of 
the particular posts in the national machine that his school 
life has fitted him for, and no other. In some towns where 
democratic ideas are growing, boys sometimes attend the 
Volksschulen until they are nine and then proceed to the 
particular secondary school where they will receive their 
special training for life; but this is unusual. Generally 
speaking, as I have said, the caste feeling is so strong that 
it is as impossible for a German boy to pass from one school 
to another as it is for his father to rise from one class of 
society to another. 

Although France has no great landlord class corresponding 
to the Prussian nobles or the English squirearchy and 
aristocracy, and despite the existence of a republic built upon 
the watchwords of " Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity," yet 
in but few countries are the distinctions of class more closely 
observed or more rigidly enforced. The gulf between the 
workman and bourgeoisie is only equalled in depth and 
impassibility by that between the latter and the highest 
classes. There is nothing more repugnant to the French 
mind — especially the maternal mind — than the pvomismite 
that would be the consequence of the democratic common 
school. Consequently such a school is unknown in France, 
and we have instead special schools for special classes of 
society. The primary schools of France are of two kinds : 
the secular State school, in which about two-thirds of all the 
primary scholars are found, and the religious Church 
schools, which are educating about one-third of the children. 

The well-to-do middle and upper classes do not send their 
children to these schools, but at from six to nine years of 
age they are incarcerated in the secondary schools either as 
full boarders or as day boarders. Here again there is 
practically no common school and no educational ladder. 

In England, although democratic ideas are gradually 
permeating the mass of society from below upwards, yet so 
strong is this caste feeling, and so acute in some respects are 
the class distinctions of society, that despite the fact that 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 57 

there is in this country but one comprehensive system 
of State schools, certain classes, more particularly the 
lower middle classes, persist in sending their children 
to schools which, generally speaking, offer no guarantee of 
efficiency, and indeed cannot under existing conditions 
provide an adequate and satisfactory system of training for 
their pupils. The upper middle classes and the highest 
classes of English society have at their disposal schools 
where a certain well known and specific system of training 
can be obtained ; but even in these schools the instruction 
given is of a singularly antiquated character, and in many 
respects unfitted for the strenuous life of to-day. 

But between these two systems — the public primary 
system and the public school system — there is a great gap, 
filled in a very haphazard fashion by private schools, for 
which, as a class, no one has yet found a good word to say. So 
that in England, between this petty feeling of caste and the 
absence of an efficient system of cheap day second grade 
schools the lower middle classes are growing up destitute of 
any real education. This is a great national loss, for among 
this great class much of the intellectual capital of the nation 
is stored. As a class they are frugal, moderate and thrifty, 
and they are recruited from the best of the lower classes ; 
consequently they are storing up from year to year sound 
minds in healthy bodies ; and I am sure that, were an efficient 
system of training provided for them by the State, there 
would soon appear an immense increase in the intellectual 
capital of the community. 

Besides this social difficulty there is the very serious 
religious difficulty, to which I have elsewhere referred. In 
Germany primary scholars are segregated in schools entirely 
according to sect. Each school is denominational, being 
either Lutheran, Catholic, or Jewish. Although it sometimes 
happens, as at Crefeld, Cologne, etc., that one finds Lutheran 
and Catholic schools under one roof, yet each is absolutely 
independent and distinct, having its own text books, its own 
teachers, and its own managers and inspectors (local). This 
system is perhaps tolerable in Germany, because the great 
Lutheran and Catholic churches constitute the vast bulk of 

E 



58 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

the people, but it undoubtedly constitutes a most serious 
hardship to the Free or Reformed churchmen, as well as to 
atheists, etc., whilst to the powerful social democratic party 
it is offensive ; for so long as this system of separate sectarian 
schools persists, the democratic common school is impossible. 
The struggle between Church and State in Germany is of 
long standing, and, though at one time it appeared certain to 
result in the complete supremacy of the State, yet recent 
events have shown that the Church as a political force is 
still one of the most potent in Prussia, and that she is still 
able to wring concessions from the official bureaucracy repre- 
senting the State. For example, the local clerical inspector, 
though controlling the school, has hitherto acted as official 
subordinate to the Government inspector. This subordina- 
tion will in future be replaced by co-ordination, and the local 
inspector will, to all intents and purposes, act as the official 
equal of the Government inspector. Thus the fate of the 
school and the teacher will, more than ever, be at the mercy 
of these representatives of the Church, who, it must be 
remembered, have had no practical training for the work, 
except what they may have acquired by a few weeks' course 
in a training college before they received their appointment 
as cleric. 

A similar condition of things prevails, to a very large 
extent, in the Prussian secondary school also. Here, again, 
the schools are classified according as they are Lutheran, 
Catholic, or Jewish ; but, of course, such a division 
is only possible in the larger and wealthier centres of 
population : the smaller and poorer districts must content 
themselves with some modification of this plan ; and, 
consequently, in such places we find the children of the 
various sects attending the one school and receiving the 
secular instruction in common, whilst for the religious 
instruction they are separated into sects. In such cases the 
sectarian teaching is given either by one of the ordinary 
teachers or, if the number of pupils of one sect be small, 
and the school has no teacher belonging to that sect, 
the local cleric belonging to that sect may come in and give 
the children the necessary instruction. 



THE DEMOtRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 59 

This separation of the children in the school according to 
sects, and also the existence of separate sectarian schools, 
are deplored by many of the best German teachers. It is 
felt that this perpetuating in the school of sectarian 
differences and jealousies is most unfortunate ; and the fact 
that separate text-books have to be provided for these 
different schools is very significant, and emphasises the 
pernicious effects of recognising in the State schools those 
differences which in the past have cost Germany so much, 
but which, in the future, it is hoped, may disappear. 
This disappearance, however, can only be effected by 
adopting a different policy in the national schools. 

The question is being asked, indeed, even as it is in many 
other countries, whether it is only by exclusion of all 
religion from the school that unity can be attained. It is 
sad to think that the foundation rock upon which national, 
like individual, character is mainly built must be severely 
ignored in school work if peace is to be attained. In France 
this momentous step has been taken, and all the State 
schools, primary and secondary, are purely secular. In 
place of religious instruction the curriculum of the French 
primary school provides a course in moral instruction ; but 
either the indifference of the teachers or the invertebrate 
character of the material has produced results which are 
admittedly disappointing, and, in many respects, unfortunate. 
Indeed, any form of ethical training, whether it be termed 
" moral " or '* religious," depends for its success entirely 
upon the personality of the teacher, and any course of 
instruction which by its own rationalism tends to modify 
rather than heighten the enthusiasm of the teacher will 
have but slight effect on the character of the pupils. The 
course is admirable, but not for children. One must appeal 
to the heart, not to the head of the child, and to the head, 
and not to the heart, of the man. Frenchmen are too 
logical. Admitting the equality of the sexes, they have 
proceeded to treat them as identical, and the French high 
schools for girls are close copies of those for boys, and 
again in this matter of moral instruction the same defect is 
observable ; they treat child and man as identical. 

E 2 



6o THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

In the State secondary schools outside pastors may attend, 
if required, and give religious instruction in the school to 
those requesting it. 

However, this secularisation of the State school has not 
solved the religious difficulty in France — indeed, it has 
increased it. As I have already stated, one-third of all 
French primary scholars are to-day (or were before the recent 
action against the Congregations) being taught in private 
Church schools, supported entirely by the poor Catholics of 
France to the extent of about tAvo and a-quarter million 
pounds annually, while in the realm of secondary education 
the Church schools are annually growing at the expense of 
the State schools to such an extent as to seriously alarm the 
French Government ; and this growth has, it is asserted, 
led to the recent crusade against these private primary and 
secondary schools. 

In America, too, the State schools are secular, and 
here the same results have appeared as in France, but 
on a smaller scale. The Lutheran immigrants from 
Scandinavia and Germany, as well as the great com- 
munity of Catholics — which latter numbers over twelve 
million people — refuse to utilise the State secular schools, 
and so has arisen the system of so-called parochial schools 
in America, in which between one and two million children 
are being annually educated."^' 

The growth of these schools, particularly of the Lutheran 
schools, however, is not altogether due to the religious 
question, but arises largely from the fact that English alone 
may be used as the medium of instruction in all American 
schools. 

Americans feel that their one hope of consolidating the 
cosmopolitan crowd of immigrants, and converting them 
as rapidly as possible into American citizens, is through 
the work of the school, and that for this purpose no 

* It is interesting to observe that the '-religious difliculty," of whicli 
so much is licard in England and France, excites but slight public 
attention in Germany where the Church is so strong, or in America 
where it is so weak. It is only where the forces are nearly balanced 
that the b;;uk becomes so bitter. 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IK EDUCATION. 6l 

language but English must be tolerated in the school ; 
but to this the German objects, and so he provides 
himself with a school where German may be utilised 
and taught. However, at home the German himself is 
pursuing the American policy, and, despite the fact that 
nearly three-quarters of a million children in Prussia cannot 
speak German, he relentlessly insists on German alone being 
used whether it be in German Poland, Schleswig-Holstein 
or Alsace-Lorraine. So, too, does the great French Republic 
treat its three million Breton citizens, whose home tongue is 
not French. In England wiser counsels have prevailed. 

Besides these social and political difficulties, there are 
pedagogic difficulties in the way of carrying out the demo- 
cratic ideal ; but these are transitory and only call for further 
investigation. It will be well, however, to refer very 
briefly to some of them here. These difficulties arise 
largely from attempting to graft the ideals of democracy on 
to the present curricula rather than commencing de novo. 

Thus the present primary school curriculum has no direct 
relationship with the secondary school curriculum. The 
basis of the primary school course is the mother tongue, of 
the secondary school course the classical tongues; and though, 
as we have argued, the study of the mother tongue of the 
primary scholar should lead up to the study of other tongues 
by the secondary scholar, yet under present conditions this 
foundation of knowledge of the mother tongue which the 
pupil possesses is neither developed nor fostered in any way 
in the secondary school : on the contrary, it is often 
deliberately snubbed and neglected. Instead of building 
upon the mother tongue, the secondary school adopts a 
system and methods of teaching as alien as possible to the 
spirit of the home tongue and as repulsive as possible to the 
inquiring and acquisitive spirit of a vigorous childhood. And 
more, so aggressive is this tyranny of classicism that it has 
actually succeeded in foisting its own ghoulish garments on 
the bright spirit of the Hving tongue, and the primary 
scholar becomes, through his grammar studies, but another 
victim on the altar of classicism. Hence the pupil who has 
completed the primary school course finds his training 



62 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION, 

quite unsuitable for the work of the secondary school. The 
one does not lead up to the other ; consequently, in both 
America and Wales, where an attempt is being made to 
carry out our ideal, it is found that the primary school pupil 
comes up to the secondary school with but a poor prepara- 
tion for the work. 

An attempt is made to meet the difficulty by providing 
special preparation for the secondary studies in the primary 
school either by grafting on secondary studies to the primary 
curriculum or by forming special classes for these pupils. 
Both plans are objectionable in theory, and most unsatisfac- 
tory in practice. The smattering of secondary studies 
provided by the first plan is more than useless, it is 
pernicious, to those who do not proceed to the secondary 
school ; while the second plan differentiates where all should 
be equal. Until the secondary school is prepared to take 
the trained product of the primary school as its basis upon 
which to build, this difficulty will be felt. 

The independence of the primary school must be acknow- 
ledged ; but, unfortunately for our schoolmasters, this step 
will involve the overthrow of the supremacy of the classics 
in the secondary school. These will have to be content with 
a position subordinate to that of the mother tongue, but equal 
to that of modern tongues. Admitting, however, that this 
step be taken, and that the primary scholar proceeds at the 
age of fourteen to commence his secondary studies, as is the 
rule in America, is not this age too late, and is not the 
time left for secondary school studies — namely, four years- 
much too short for any really thorough secondary training ? 
It is difficult to answer these questions in the light of our 
experience, but it is undoubtedly the opinion of many experts 
that secondary studies, particularly linguistic studies, are 
generally begun too early, and that a more intensive study 
at a later age (say, twelve or fourteen) will be found much 
more effective in the end. 

Personally, I am convinced that we begin all our studies, 
primary and secondary, much too early. We are in far too 
great a hurry to make men and women of our boys and 
girls. However that may be, no definite answers can be 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 63 

given to the questions just put ; for until the principles o£ 
solidarity of curricula and the mutual independence of 
schools are admitted it is impossible to say that the age of 
beginning is too late or the period of training too short. 

Finally, there is the difficulty of selecting the children who 
shall receive a secondary education, for it is obvious that the 
community cannot be burdened with the task of endeavouring 
to put a " two-thousand-dollar education into a five-cent 
boy." One thing is certain — no system of competitive 
examinations can do this. If there is one phase of English 
education that is more ludicrously pathetic than another it is 
this extraordinary system of competitive examinations of 
children, by Avhich we endeavour to sift out the ore from the 
matrix. It is recognised by most cultured EngHshmen that 
it is the development of a strong individuality in the citizens 
that has contributed to the success of the Saxon. Yet here 
we have a system deliberately contrived to crush out all 
variety of personality in our children. It is bad enough for 
young people to be subjected to such a system ; it is wanton 
waste to put children to such tests. No, the only person 
who by constant observation can determine the capacity 
of children is the teacher, and it is to the teacher we 
must look for relief from this system of competitive 
examinations. The solidarity of the profession which will 
result from the application of democratic ideals to education 
will bring about a closer union and a better understanding 
between our primary and secondary teachers. It will be 
recognised that both are engaged in precisely the same task, 
and that perfect co-operation is indispensable for the success 
of that task. Consequently a committee composed of both 
primary and secondary teachers will be recognised as a far 
more effective machine for discovering the intellectual 
jewels of the people than the present system, of which it 
may be said that no other could be worse and any other 
must be better. 

So much for the difficulties of democracy. None of them 
is fatal, and the solution of all is — education ! 

But let us not forget that it is not so much more education 
as a better education that is needed. 



64 THE DEMOCR-ATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION: 



CHAPTER V. 



Conclusions. 

We have already noticed some of the difficulties that 
confront the work of democracy in the field of education, 
and we concluded that all the social difficulties and most of 
the administrative difficulties will disappear as the results of 
a better system of popular education appear. The fact that 
the school has sometimes been made the victim of political 
jobbery only emphasises the necessity of securing to each 
citizen an intelligent appreciation of the principles of politics 
and economics. The essentials of political ecoonmy should, 
I hold, be taught in every school. Jobbery fattens on 
ignorance and thrives on prejudice. Eternal vigilance, it 
has been said, is the price of liberty, and to be vigilant a 
people must be intelligent. And so for the prejudices of 
class and the rivalries of sectarianism education and national 
culture alone are panaceas of whose efficacy there can be no 
doubt. 

Of the difficulties arising from the poverty of rural 
communities, of those arising from variations in social 
conditions outside the school, it is unnecessary to speak 
here. Suffice it to say that all these difficulties are common 
in a greater or less degree to every great civilised community. 
The growth of world-citizenship and the gradual disappear- 
ance of national characteristics are two of the most 
significant of modern movements ; while the fact already 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 65 

noted, that beneath the apparent variety and diversity on the 
surface of the life of modern communities there is a 
remarkable similarity in the deeper currents that agitate and 
stimulate the peoples, is of immense significance. 

It is the recognition of this truth, that although no nation 
can be a pattern, yet it may always be a guide to another 
nation, that makes the comparative study of modern 
systems of national education so valuable. The experience 
of Germany, of America, and of France to England is 
invaluable ; but that experience must be read through our 
own eyes. 

Let us glance for a moment at certain aspects of our 
educational system as it appears in the light of foreign 
experience. 

In England nearly eighteen per cent, of the total popula- 
tion are found in the public primary schools ; in Germany, 
as a whole, there are also eighteen per cent, of the people in 
the State primary schools ; in France, where the children 
are fewer in proportion to the total population, the proportion 
in the schools (i.e., State and Church schools) is about 
sixteen per cent. ; while in America in all kinds of schools, 
primary and secondary, there are to be found one-fifth of 
the total population. 

In Germany there are many overcrowded class-rooms, 
under-staffed schools, and half-day schools ; but the teacher 
is in ail respects the best trained and most skilful of 
pedagogues. In France there are some overcrowded schools, 
and many untrained teachers. In England there are many 
untrained teachers and poor school buildings ; while in 
America the average rural teacher is wretchedly paid, 
and professionally unequipped, and the school is often 
poorly housed. Generally speaking, one may summarise 
the matter by saying that, in most respects, there is no 
essential difference between the schools of these four 
countries, but that of the teachers there are in all four 
countries but two classes — those professionally equipped 
and those not so equipped — and that of those professionally 
prepared Germany possesses the greatest proportion and 
America the least. 



66 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

When, however, we come to the field of so-called 
secondary education, England's lamentable lack is at once 
apparent. In America it is estimated that practically one 
per cent, of the nation are receiving a higher education ; thus 
in the year 1899- 1900 the number of American secondary 
students is given as 719,241, in France in 1897 the number 
of boys attending public and private secondary schools was 
182,221, while some 12,000 girls were found in the public 
secondary schools for girls. Of the girls who attend the 
private conventual schools the number is not known, but is, 
doubtless, very large. In Prussia, in 1898-9, the total 
number of boys attending secondary schools was 152,019, 
while of girls there are over 150,000 in higher schools. In 
England, in 1897, ^^^^ number of boys who were returned as 
receiving some kind of secondary education was 158,502, and 
of girls 133,042; but it must be emphasised that but a 
fraction of these are receiving an education that is in 
any respect comparable to the education received by the 
French or German secondary scholar. This is indeed the 
most pressing problem in English education to-day — the 
provision of day secondary schools open to all. 

There is, however, no need as yet to despair of English 
education. In the primary school we need more trained 
teachers, and those better trained ; we need to place our rural 
schools on an equality with our town schools. Money must 
be spent on building new schools and improving old ones. In 
the secondary schools we need trained professional teachers 
possessing security of tenure and reasonable rewards ; we need 
to modernise our curricula and to rationalise our methods ; 
and, finally, we need co-ordination between these schools, so 
that the gifted pupil may pass easily from primary to 
secondary school. But, in attacking these problems, our 
success will depend upon the ideals that animate us, for we 
work not alone for ourselves, nor our children, but for our 
children's children ; and, although you and I cannot hope to 
see the fruition of our endeavours, yet let us sow the good 
seed of democracy, trusting that in due season will appear a 
plant pointing heavenwards and worthy to look upon. We, 
who are at last about to set up a national system of^educa- 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 67 

tion, primary and secondary, will work with no mean aim. 
of immediate profit or com_mercial success ; we will lay our 
foundation firm and lasting as the everlasting hills. The 
common good shall be our aim, not of to-day nor of to- 
morrow only, but also of the many morrows yet to 
come. For fair must be the stone, true must be its 
place, and firm the hand of the builder if the founda- 
tion is to be well and truly laid upon which the great 
edifice of true democracy is to be reared. There must be 
no chipping of the stone to fit the place : rather must the 
place be made to fit the stone. We can tolerate no 
compromise that may spoil the symmetry and ultimately 
wreck the effectiveness of the whole. Upon the system of 
education that we to-day build, and, in the end, upon the 
ideals that animate us in the building will depend the 
character of English democracy to-morrow. Let us then 
build with infinite patience this temple of national culture, 
let us see to it that its pinnacles and spires point true to the 
stars, and that its foundations are laid deep and firm upon 
the solid rock of national character. 

We can build such a temple only by mutual co-operation 
and sacrifice, for the true life is a constant sacrifice, and he 
who best serves himself serves the State. Patriotism is the 
best selfishness, and he who loses himself in the people 
finds himself in the State. To work for self is to work 
for all, for the happiness of all is dependent on the 
happiness of one. No community is efficient that has one 
inefficient. 

Wealth can be created, it cannot be acquired. A 
father may under present conditions leave his son a 
certain number of metal coins, but he cannot leave him a 
grain of that mental power which he himself possesses, and 
which alone is of any real and permanent value. 

And this temple of national culture of which we have 
spoken is well worthy of our most strenuous efforts and 
deepest thoughts, for not only will the beauty and symmetry 
of the whole be a criterion of our ideal, but upon it and 
within it will be hung all those emblems of the national life 
that have most deeply appealed to our people ; there they 



68 THE DExMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

will hang as mementos of the past and beacons of thfe 
future. Moreover, in this temple will be stored all the 
intellectual capital of the people, and to it every child will 
come freely and gladly to partake of whatever portion of 
that capital is his. Between him and it none shall stand. 
God himself shall be the arbiter, for He alone can award the 
proper and peculiar portion of each. 

And having obtained his share he will go out into life to 
do with his talents as seemeth best, and in due time will he 
return his talents ten-fold, nay, a hundred-fold, to the 
common stock in the temple. There in this temple is stored 
the only real national capital. 

The stability and permanency of the State is dependent 
not upon its annual surplus, but upon the number of cultured 
healthy citizens the schools are turning out. 

Just as the rising sun scatters the mist, so will a better 
and broader culture chase away the mammon of unrighteous- 
ness and the greed of commerce that to-day enthral our 
people. 

It is sad to think that to obtain progress in education 
appeal must be made to the commercial instinct and greed 
of the English people. At present education, for its own 
sake, does not appeal to them, so one must needs alarm 
them with bogeys of American and German competition. It 
was not thus with Germany. Hurled to the dust by a 
ruthless conqueror, she determined to make herself once 
more worthy of freedom and glory by training, by education. 
She recognised that it is righteousness alone that can exalt 
a people, and so, leaving to France the empire of the land, 
and to England that of the sea, she was content to attain 
to the empire of the intellect, knowing that in God's 
good time even those other things may be added to 
her domain. However, even in England progress is 
being made : the cry of the politician and the sectarian 
is daily becoming feebler, and their power for evil 
is being lessened. There is a growing feeling that it 
is time that the nation's school should be what its name 
implies. 

Moreover, as the power of the people is more and more 



THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 69 

felt, SO its effect is being seen in the schools. The people 
themselves — particularly the great progressive cities of 
England — are crying out for equal opportunity and good 
schools for all. Trades union congresses discuss this 
question of national education, and are asking for better 
schools and free schools, primary and secondary, and 
wherever workmen are well organised and themselves 
educated, there one finds an efficient system of education.-'- 

It is in rural England, where the dead hand lies 
heavy on the land, that the school is poorest and weakest, 
and only as the leaven of a better public opinion slowly 
penetrates into these spots will matters improve. 

Finally, in a better education alone is our salvation, not 
because we may possibly thereby have larger surpluses, but 
because we shall certainly have more good citizens ; and 
these good citizens, let it not be forgotten, must be cultured, 
it is true, but they must also be healthy. Hence the futility 
of an educational reform that is not preceded by certain 
social reforms. We must aim at building up complete men, 
men who are not only good scholars but good animals also, 
and this we cannot hope to do while so many of our people 
are housed under conditions intolerable to animals, and fatal 
to manhood. 

This movement towards democracy, though repugnant to 
many, cannot be stayed. Slow, almost imperceptible, is 
the movement at times, yet anon there is a perfect cataract 
of motion. It is the part of the wise man to recognise it, 
and, as far as possible, control it, so that the intermittent 
may be replaced by a permanent movement, and the 
destructiveness of the cataract be avoided. To guide such 



* "The public attitude control;-, and will always control, to a certain 
exter.t, the work of the school ; and only when our folk have reluctantly 
come to the conclusion that all Englishmen are not born educational 
experts may the teacher hope for freedom from the ignorant criticism 
that to-day so much harasses and fetters In'm. Public opinion in 
Germany is very much like public opinion in England, but there is 
tin's important distinction — the German workman believes that some 
men know more abwut education than he does, tlie Englishman does 
n..t." 



70 THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN EDUCATION. 

a movement to its noble end should be the ideal of 
statesmanship; and though the desert be long and the 
difficulties many, though the cloud of fire be but faint that 
illumines the dark track, yet there in the distance will 
Pisgah anon appear, from whose heights the seer will behold 
the fair land beyond. 




THE 

TEACH ERS' TIHES 

A WEEKLY JOURNAL for . . 

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^be ©tttcial ©rgan of ^be Scbool Mature StuO^ IHnion. 

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Every number is Composed cf — -=^^^^15^^ 

Pfacticai Kpwleie for Prastioal Teaclim. 

Lessons for All Standards and Papers for All Students. 



SOME OF THE CONTRIBUTORS: 



Dr. Hayward. 

H. Thiselton MarK, B.A., B.Sc. 

F. A. Farrar, B.A., B.Sc, 

S. H. Hooke. B.A. 

Owen A. ParracK, F.R.G.S. 

Jeanie Mackenzie. 



A. Eve, B.A., L.L.A. 
M. Bradfield. 

(Late Lady Principal of the Birmingham 
School Board Pupil Teachers" Centre.) 

Anna L. Chadderton, M.A. 
Isabel F. Young, L.L.A. 



SOME OF THE SUBJECTS ; 
Nature Study, Illustrated. 

Geography— Current Topics, Object Lessons, Principles, Illustrated. 
History Teaching by Biographies. 
Plant and Animal Life, Illustrated. 

Science of Common Objects, with Blackboard Illustrations. 
Tutorial Courses. 

Co-ordination of Teaching and Learning. 
Lessons in English Grammar and Composition. 
Drawing— Model, Freehand, Brushwork, 6c., &c. 
Arithmetic Tests for all Standards. 
Needlework for the Standards. 
Kinder-Garten Papers. 
Physical 1 Culture. 



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EHOLISH C0K!P88!T!ON, 



Tlie "Modern' ' Composition 
Exercise Book. 

For Scholars. A well-anciii^fed Course of Cou-ii:»o6ition 
Exercises is given in the Book. Each Exercise is printed at the 
top of the page, the rcinaining space on the page being suitably 
Ruled for Scholar's work. By H. Bryett. Post 410, 40 pages. 
Stout Paper Covers. Price per dozen, net, 3s. 

This Book aims at- 

1. Reducing- to a minimum the time spent in explanations in the 
Composition Lesson. 

2. Allowing full time to be spent on actual composition. 

3. Variety. 

4. Developing- fluency of composition. 

CORBELATED"TEii^^ 

An Envirofim ent Programme 
and its Co nnec tions . 

Containing Nature and Observation Lessons, with connected 
Stories, Games, and Expression Lessons. Suitable Illustrations 
for Free-Arm Drawing, Brush-Work, Clay Modelling, Stick- 
Laying, Paper Folding and Cutting accompan}^ the Lessons. 
By JEANIE Mackenzie, Author of " A Nature Programme and 
its Connections." Price net, 4s. 6d. Post free, 4s. lod. 

Extract from Introduction : — 

" The aim of the Programme is to demonstrate the connection between 
prominent elements of the child's environment and his own life, so that 
he may learn more of his life and nature and their needs, and more 
of his life and nature and their needs, and more of the nature of his 
surroundings." 

CHARLES & DIBLE, -™,^ 

LONDON: 10, Paternoster Square, E,C. 
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DUBLIN : 7it Middk Abbey Street. 



JUN 10 1904 



